For Jesus

Part Bir [One] – Sandali

‘We do not consider our principles as dogmas contained in books, said to come from heaven. We derive our inspiration not from heaven, or the unseen world, but directly from life.’

- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Chapter ۱ - Ilham

(1 - Inspiration)

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

On the eve of a major tour of some the most important cities of Anatolia, the man, whom the author of this story considers to be one of the ten greatest people of the twentieth century, granted an interview to a British journalist. In their conversation, the latter asked the sadly now clearly physically ailing first President of the Republic of Turkey, which had been established in 1923, the year after the deposition of the last of the Ottoman Sultans, what he considered had been the biggest inspiration in his life.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk replied intriguingly and mysteriously because he subsequently politely declined to elaborate his strange answer. He instead mischievously suggested, whilst displaying a friendly grin, that the journalist might enjoy researching what he meant.

In fact, to his shame, the journalist never bothered performing the requisite research. He instead at the time lazily concluded incorrectly that the President must have somehow gained inspiration from the visual pleasantness and renowned hardiness of the mentioned object. He therefore moved his interview on to apparently weightier issues and never subsequently reconsidered the matter.

By reading some of the Ottoman archives and other sources, however, the author of this story believes that he knows what the great Atatürk really meant. The first President of the Republic of Turkey was certainly aware of and greatly admired the apparent true subject of his answer to the British journalist.

Atatürk’s intriguing and mysterious answer to the British journalist’s question about the biggest inspiration in his life had been “A mountain flower!”

Chapter ۲ - Çiçekler

(2 - Flowers)

(Gülhane [Rose Chamber], Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, 98 years previously, 3rd of November 1839)

Turkish literature used the Arabic alphabet until the 1st of November 1928, when Latin lettering was introduced under the auspices of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, reforming first President of the new republic. 98 years before, almost exactly to the day, Kardelen considered his regular use of this script as his major professional tool to be somewhat personally mocking.

Kardelen had been illiterate until his capture by Arabs at the age of only ten almost half a century previously. However, his boyhood inability to read or write was not due to any lack of intellectual ability, as later events in his life would demonstrate. Instead, the people from whom he stemmed simply had no need for such skills.

Kardelen’s Arab captors had not taught him their alphabet. An important man of rather exotic background had instead been responsible.

This development occurred despite the fact that the man only met the young Kardelen once and very briefly. He had also delegated the actual teaching to foreign servants.

The Arabs had therefore not taught Kardelen their alphabet. They had instead done something else and he had subsequently never been able to forgive them, although his life had eventually turned out to be rather pleasant and worthy.

In his later life, Kardelen frequently felt that his regular use of the Arabic alphabet was a cruel joke, for such usage frequently caused him to recall his captors and what they had done to him when he had only been a young pre-pubescent boy. Such remembrance often caused his mind much anguish. However, such mental pain was nothing to what his 10 year-old body had suffered at the time.

Kardelen was currently not using his skills with the Arabic script. Nevertheless, via a rather roundabout mental process, his thoughts still managed now to drift back again to what the Arabs had perpetrated on him.

Kardelen was presently standing patiently in one of the many ornate garden pavilions of the Ottoman Sultan’s massive and magnificent main palace in what in 1839 was still officially named Constantinople, but was more commonly called Istanbul by most Turks. 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.

The Sultan’s main residence was currently still called ‘Yeni’, meaning ‘new’. This naming distinguished the place from the ‘Old Palace’, or ‘Eski Sarayi’.

The Eski Sarayi had remained in use for various purposes long after the construction of the new palace in the 15th century on the orders of the conquering Mehmed II. This Ottoman Sultan had captured Constantinople for Islam in 1453 from the Christian Byzantine Emperors.

Mehmed II, the ‘Conqueror’, had built his new palace on ‘Sarayburnu’, or ‘Seraglio Point’, at the very eastern end of the promontory on which Constantinople rested. The complex was constructed on an old olive grove on the site of the acropolis of ancient Byzantium, which was the city’s former name.

The palace became not only the principal residence of Mehmed II and his successors but also the centre of Imperial administration. As such, the complex was currently home to about 4000 people.

The palace was not like those constructed for contemporary European monarchs, which were usually centred on one huge building. The complex instead consisted of many relatively smaller and lower but ornate constructions, grouped into four courts.

Amongst the buildings were many ornate palace pavilions, termed ‘kiosks’, which were quite big. They were also generally built of wood and polygonal in shape.

The complex would only be called ‘Topkapi’, by which name the place is known in modern times, after 1863. An eponymous shore kiosk burnt down in that year, which was a decade after the residence’s abandonment as his home by the then Sultan in favour of the new Dolmabahçe Palace, which had been built in a more modern western European style.

The name ‘Topkapi’ actually meant ‘Cannon Gate’, after an ancient entrance into Constantinople situated near to the shore kiosk. After the fire that destroyed this pavilion, the title was transferred to the whole complex, presumably because the place could no longer be described as ‘yeni’ after the advent of the new Dolmabahçe Palace.

Kardelen was currently waiting in what in 1839 still the Yeni Sarayi in a kiosk called the ‘Gülhane’. This name meant ‘Rose Chamber’.

The name of this kiosk derived from the fact that the Sultan’s chief confectioner once used the building for the preparation of rose sweetmeats. However, for Kardelen, the place always caused him to think of the eponymous flowers, which blossomed in summer throughout the palace gardens but especially in the one sharing the Gülhane pavilion’s name.

The roses shared the palace gardens with many other types of flowers, such as narcissi and especially tulips, which were a symbol of the Sultans. All such flora, alongside hundreds of others, were indigenous to the Ottoman Empire, from where they had been introduced into western Europe.

The Gülhane Garden, which in modern times is part of a public park, was very special to Kardelen but not because of the roses. He instead felt most affection for some crocus-like flowers, which blossomed there in early spring.

As Kardelen waited in the Gülhane pavilion, he briefly smiled affectionately at the thought of these spring flowers. However, grief subsequently suddenly affected him again and a tear formed in one eye.

Kardelen had two good reasons to have great affection for the spring flowers concerned. They were a white drooping bell-shaped form of snowdrop, which were completely out of place in the palace rose garden for they were normally only found on certain mountains of Anatolia.

Neither of the two reasons for Kardelen’s affection involved the facts that the mountain flowers concerned were pretty and hardy and possessed medicinal uses. The herb supposedly helped to strengthen the heart, whilst an alkaloid powder, similar to galantamine, produced from the bulb was apparently a muscle stimulant. He took neither of the relevant potions.

One of the reasons for Kerdelen’s affection was instead that the flowers concerned had originally been planted in the garden, far away from their Anatolian mountain origins, many years previously on the orders of a boyhood friend. The latter had sadly died of tuberculosis on the 1st of July of the present year, just nineteen days before what would have been his 54th birthday.

Recall of this recent sorrowful event had caused Kardelen’s current sudden grief and the appearance of the tear. To avoid allowing such distress to overwhelm him at this rather inconvenient time, he consequently now quickly attempted to stop thinking of the mountain flowers and instead tried to concentrate his thoughts on matters at hand. He hoped to be aided in doing so by being fully aware that the announcement of immense importance, which was about to take place in the Gülhane, was of great personal significance. However, his efforts to distract his mind from sad remembrances rapidly proved futile.

Kardelen’s thoughts instead soon drifted back to his special mountain flowers. However, on this occasion his mind did not incline once more towards recall of his sadly recently deceased boyhood friend.

Kardelen’s thoughts instead, as they often did, drifted back almost half a century to his original fateful capture by Arabs, the subsequent long traumatising journey from his distant homeland to Constantinople and the second reason why certain Anatolian mountain flowers, which blossomed in spring, were so special to him.

Chapter ٣ - Itaatsizlik

(3 - Disobedience)

(Nuba Mountains, central Sudan, 44 years previously, 15th of July 1795)

Coincidentally on the same day that in faraway Paris the ‘Marseillaise’ was formally adopted as the national anthem of revolutionary France, a 10 year-old boy crept out of his family’s round thatched mud-hut in his tribal village, picturesquely located amidst the mountains of central Sudan named after his people. He did so for two reasons.

First, Kodi, who was like all of his people in having skin of deepest ebony in hue, was both uncomfortable and bored at being confined for a long time indoors with his many siblings, most of whom were younger and were either squabbling with each other or crying. The crowded, noisy and uncomfortably hot, in such daytime circumstances, environment of the inside of the round windowless mud-hut was hard to tolerate.

Second, both being bad-tempered at their situation, Kodi, whose name in the tribal language meant ‘second son’, had just had a heated argument with his older brother. The dispute had almost led to a fight.

“Papa and mama will be unhappy at you disobeying them,” Kodi’s older brother suggested, on watching, without taking any other action, his younger sibling leave, “for they told us all to stay here until they return.” “I’ll happily suffer the consequences,” the sulky 10 year-old retorted, “rather than suffer this confinement for any longer!”

Kodi truly preferred a beating from his father for being disobedient in preference to continuing to endure his confinement with his noisy and squabbling siblings in the hot hut. The clever boy, who was wearing only a brief clout of white material around his slim hips, the colour of which contrasted starkly with his black skin, had also calculated hopefully that his loving parent might commute such a sentence to a simple telling-off.

Kodi, however, was to regret his impatient impulsive action for the rest of his life because the consequences of his disobedience were actually to prove in the short-term to be far worse than he could ever have imagined.

Chapter ٤ - Kervan

(4 - Caravan)

(Nuba Mountains, central Sudan, 15th of July 1795)

The remote and barely accessible Nuba Mountains, amongst which Kodi and his tribe lived and which were named after his people, were nevertheless far greener and more fertile than the surrounding arid plains of central Sudan. Consequently, other ethnic groups had been drawn into living there too, including Arabs.

The Arabs mainly comprised Baggara, who were cattle-herders. There were also a few Jellaba merchants, who were named after the distinctive traditional loose-fitting outer robe they commonly wore.

These different ethnic groups lived together in the Nuba Mountains in general harmony and under the current nominal suzerainty of the Sultan of Darfur. However, unfortunately for Kodi, a small minority of the Jellaba merchants, who traded in certain specialised commodities, did not consider the maintenance of peaceful relations in the region to be of sufficient importance to avoid taking commercial risks.

The Jellaba merchants concerned were instead sufficiently greedy to care more for money than peaceful co-existence. Nevertheless, for their own safety, they did attempt to take great care to disguise the more nefarious aspects of their commercial activities.

The reason why all the Nuba children had now been unusually confined by their parents to their round family mud-huts in daytime was the current presence of some of these particular Jellaba merchants in their village. The tribal adults were aware that these traders specialised in certain luxury goods, much prized in Egypt, and had come to see whether the community might have any to sell or barter. They were also conscious of some of the rumours concerning the Arabs’ more perfidious activities but without firm evidence were cordial enough to allow the visit, whilst being sufficiently cautious to remove their young ones from sight.

As befitted a hospitable people, most of the Nuba adults had politely gathered in the centre of their village with their holy man, titled the ‘Kujur’, and elders in order to hear formally what the Jellaba merchants were seeking and offering in return. They gathered despite the renewed threat of imminent heavy rainfall, evident from the copious black clouds accumulating overhead.

Kodi fully appreciated that he did not dare turn up amidst this adult gathering. The boy therefore instead fatefully began to leave his village.

Despite very heavy rainfall at certain times of the year, there was a general shortage of water in the Nuba Mountains. Villages were consequently invariably located close to wells and Kodi’s was no exception.

The village was also strategically placed for ease of water supply alongside the course of a seasonal mountain stream. This ‘wadi’ was dry for much of the year but was often, as now, in dramatic spate at the height of the rainy season.

Kodi’s furtive unauthorised plan was not to go to the part of the wadi adjacent to his village but to a more secluded spot, hidden from the settlement by a rocky ridge. The boy planned to frolic in the cool water currently excitingly coursing down the stream, partly to wash away the sweat that had accumulated on his body as a result of his recent confinement in his crowded and hot family mud-hut and partly for pure enjoyment. However, on reaching the top of the intervening height, he not only paused his progress but also lay down to survey from a furtive vantagepoint the strange scene below.

Kodi had seen a Jellaba caravan before and would normally not have been wary of approaching one. However, despite having the usual camels and donkeys for riding or laden with goods either for barter or recently acquired for resale, there was something else present in this particular convoy that caused the boy concern.

Currently sitting on the ground towards the rear of the caravan was a long line of naked boys, about forty in number and similar in age and colour to Kodi. All of them had their hands bound behind their backs, and their necks were linked by lengths of rope. One Jellaba merchant, assisted by loincloth-clad adult blacks, who all carried light whips, were keeping guard.

Kodi had heard disturbing rumours of certain Jellaba merchants, who specialised in acquiring black boys for the slave markets of Egypt. What most worried the young Nuba about such upsetting stories was that they also told frightening tales of horrifying mutilations suffered by the children on their way north.

Kodi had not yet learnt anything more specific relating to these disturbing rumours. Despite his normal natural curiosity, the boy had actually, in respect of these upsetting stories, not been particularly keen to seek such information.

Kodi had especially never in his worst nightmares believed that he would ever learn more about these disturbing rumours through personal experience.

Chapter ٥ - Ret

(5 – Refusal)

(Nuba Mountains, central Sudan, 15th of July 1795)

The leader of the Jellaba merchants visiting Kodi’s village was very unhappy. The Nuba of this particular tribal community, which he had not previously visited and intended never to do so again because of their disappointing decision, had refused to sell or barter any of the commodities in which he specialised.

The Jellaba merchant had only very rarely previously visited a black African community in which all of the adults were completely unwilling to trade in his specialised commodities. He strongly disliked being disappointed in his commercial aims in such a manner because of the wasted time and travelling involved.

The Jellaba merchant had instead generally found that parents, of large but impoverished black families throughout Sudan and north and west Ethiopia, were frequently willing to exchange one of their pre-pubescent sons for money or goods. They were especially co-operative during times of famine, which were common to the region, if only to ensure that the rest of their children survived.

The Jellaba merchant had also found that reluctant guardians of young orphaned black boys were additionally often interested in trading in order to rid themselves of unwanted nuisances and drains on personal assets. Such sources handily supplemented similar human commodities acquired from slavers from the south.

Many of the selling parents or guardians often consoled their consciences by accepting the Jellaba merchant’s suggestions that the acquired boys could actually expect better futures. In fact, for some of the children concerned, such boasts even had some foundation if the initial mental and physical traumas that they would soon suffer were survived and ignored.

The adult Nuba of Kodi’s village had, however, declined the Jellaba merchant’s offers for those of their pre-pubescent boys who might be considered surplus. The Kujur, who spoke on behalf of his people because the various tribal gods spoke through him, had instead firmly confirmed the philosophy of their community that no members would ever be lost in such a way.

The Kujur spoke through a local Baggara interpreter. The latter had been hired and brought by the Jellaba merchants because he was naturally fluent in Arabic and also reasonably so in the various Nuba dialects through his regular contacts with the relevant tribes.

The Kujur had proudly described to the Jellaba merchants through the Baggara interpreter how his villagers co-operated with and assisted each other, including selflessly helping those who had fallen on hard times. Orphans in particular became his own personal responsibility and he stated that he was both honoured and honour-bound to supervise their development into good adult members of the community.

The Jellaba merchant had been unable to budge the Kujur and his elders from this stance, despite offering far more than he usually did for the specialist commodities he was seeking. The Arab would have been content to overpay once just to destroy the village policy through establishing a precedent.

The leading Jellaba merchant therefore subsequently sulked away, in the company of the other Arab traders in his small party, apart from the one guarding the caravan of commodities already acquired. They left the Baggara interpreter behind to find his own way home because they no longer needed him, as they planned no further trips to Nuba settlements.

The trip to Kodi’s village had been the last planned. The visit had been scheduled in order to try to secure a few final specialist young human commodities to add to a caravan already well laden with acquired goods, including pre-pubescent black boys. The timing of the Jellaba merchant’s annual trading cycle dictated that they needed now to head for Egypt.

The leading Jellaba merchant was naturally very disappointed and frustrated at leaving empty-handed from his meeting with Kodi’s villagers. He was also angered. Both emotions contributed significantly to what next happened.

The Jellaba merchant leader’s current route from the Nuba village to his caravan naturally took him across the intervening ridge. As a consequence, he and the subordinate Arab traders in his company encountered Kodi.

Unfortunately, Kodi was unaware of the approach from behind him of the Jellaba merchants until too late.

Chapter ٦ - Kaçırma

(6 – Abduction)

(Nuba Mountains, central Sudan, 15th of July 1795)

The leader of the Jellaba merchants was both a quick-thinking and unscrupulous man. These characteristics had already earned him great wealth but, instead of retiring to live in comfort on his immense ill-gotten gains, he had greedily continued his nefarious trading activities.

The Jellaba merchant leader’s reasons for not retiring were twofold, namely his boundless avarice for money and his personal sadism. He especially enjoyed the cruelty inherent in his particular mercantile specialism.

To the Jellaba merchant leader’s quick-thinking and unscrupulousness were now added his disappointment, frustration and anger at his just concluded fruitless visit to the Nuba village. Unfortunately for Kodi, all of these attributes and attitudes now focused on him because, to the Arab trader, the black boy, who was of the required age for his specialist commodities, appeared to represent manna from heaven, sent to salve his unhappiness.

The quick-thinking and unscrupulousness of the leader of the Jellaba merchants consequently immediately kicked into action when he spotted Kodi. He instantly gestured to his fellow Arabs to be as quiet as possible whilst they crept up on the unknowing black boy.

The Jellaba merchants subsequently proved so successful in their stealthy approach that the first that Kodi knew of their presence was when he was suddenly grabbed from behind and hauled to and then off his feet. In instinctive reaction, he immediately naturally wanted to scream out in shock and fear. However, the particular Arab trader now holding him had been selected by the leader to snatch the boy on account of his strength. Such vigour enabled him to hold tightly and securely onto his young prize with one arm, whilst also efficiently silencing him by smothering his mouth with the other.

The fruitlessly struggling Kodi was subsequently carried, kicking but failing to scream, to the caravan at the bottom of the ridge and on the edge of the wadi. Here, his mouth was quickly gagged and, with similar professionally efficient rapidity, his hands were bound behind his back and his neck was connected by rope to the black boy who had previously formed the rear in the line of specialist human commodities.

Kodi’s only covering, the brief clout of white material around his slim hips, was also speedily pulled off him so that he became as naked as the other black boys. There were two reasons for this further sinister development.

First, Kodi now looked similar from a distance to the other bound black boys. The scheming leader of the Jellaba merchants appreciated that this situation might prove useful for his caravan’s ability to leave immediately, swiftly and safely if anyone from the nearby Nuba village bothered to watch the departure.

Second, the Jellaba merchants had no intention of mollycoddling Kodi by allowing him any attire, especially as his clout had some value and so would be resold, if only for a minuscule amount. Their new acquisition’s subsequent securing of clothing in future would be down to the whims of his new owner, if he lived to have one.

Without further ado, the Jellaba merchants immediately quickly set off downstream. They now wanted to put as much distance as possible between their caravan and the abducted black boy’s village before the inhabitants discovered that the child was missing.

Kodi’s early resistance to forming part of this rapidly departing caravan, through deliberately collapsing to the ground, was speedily terminated by a few stinging whip strokes and the realisation that, if he did not compliantly walk, he might just be injuriously dragged along. The desperate boy therefore placed his hopes for his ultimate salvation in the notion that his people would soon discover that he was missing, link the happening to the Jellaba merchants and despatch men to overtake the traders.

Consequently, instead of continuing his early desperate resistance, the horrified naked Kodi found himself compliantly trotting along at the rear of the long line of legitimately and illegitimately acquired black boys in the caravan, who were earmarked for sale in Egypt. Tears of anguish at his appalling situation began to flow down his face.

These tears were, however, soon washed away by rain because, to add to Kodi’s wretchedness, the heavy and prolonged downpour, which had earlier been threatening to fall, finally started.

Chapter ٧ - Nil

(7 – Nile)

(River Nile, Nubia, northern Sudan, one month later, 15th of August 1795)

Coincidentally on the same day that in faraway Paris the ‘franc’ was formally adopted by the ruling National Convention as the new currency of revolutionary France, the Jellaba caravan finally reached the mighty River Nile. Kodi had never before seen such a vast expanse of water. However, after his initial amazement, his mind soon returned to the more urgent need of personal survival.

By now, Kodi’s neck and wrists were very red and sore through the rubbing of the ropes encircling them. His lithe young body was also extremely weary. After all, the Jellaba caravan had travelled, via various wadis and watering holes, a very long way northwards from the distant Nuba Mountains across arid plains and deserts in order to reach the Nile.

The caravan had crossed some of the most inhospitable and isolated land in the world, where rainfall was virtually unknown. There were also no oases, just parts of the desert where the water-table was high enough for wells to be dug and these were only sufficient for the needs of occasional passing nomads and travellers, not for permanent communities.

Kodi, like the other black boys in the caravan, had been forced to march all of the way to the Nile. The Jellaba merchants rode camels.

The Jellaba merchants’ loincloth-clad and very hardy hired adult black assistants had walked too. They kept the inter-linked boys, as well as the donkeys and camels laden with goods rather than Arab traders, in line and up to pace whilst doing so, if necessary with the aid of the light whips that they carried. Fortunately for the naked Kodi and his similarly nude young companions, these scourges were designed to sting in order to ensure discipline in the caravan rather than cause serious damage.

The Jellaba merchants would not have appreciated permanent damage being caused because such injury would certainly have diminished the future market values of the black boys. Consequently, the bare bodies of the young victims of the light whips currently only bore the insubstantial marks of a few recent stinging lashes, which would soon disappear.

During the lengthy march, Kodi and the other black boys were also fortunate in their skin colouring and the fact that none of them had ever worn shoes. The deep ebony hue of their flesh meant that their naked bodies were not prone to being burnt whilst exposed to the prevailing very strong and hot daytime sunlight, whilst the soles of their feet were sufficiently hardy to tolerate the long walk.

The boys were also fed and watered regularly, as the Jellaba merchants did not want to lose such precious commodities because of hunger or thirst. The traders fully realised that losses for another reason amongst these young human goods would be high enough.

The boys, however, were compelled to eat and drink from bowls whilst their hands remained bound behind them. They were therefore humiliatingly forced to consume their food and water as if they were dogs.

The boys were also compelled to toilet whilst still bound. Having their bottoms wiped and being occasionally more generally washed by the attendant black adults was to them as equally humiliating as the manner in which they were forced to eat and drink.

The boys’ greatest discomfort, however, resulted from the shear monotony and fatigue of marching for the majority of daylight hours in extremely hot and arid surrounds, with any relapses in their progress punished by a stinging blow from one of the whips. They were therefore actually grateful for the occasional sandstorm encountered, when the caravan would stop and shelter.

The Nile was eventually reached just about where the river, after temporarily flowing south for over 150 miles, returned conclusively to head north. The area was nicknamed by those who knew of the geographical phenomenon as the ‘Great Bend’.

After eating and drinking and subsequently toileting and being washed in the Nile in the customary humiliating ways, the naked black boys, including Kodi, were currently being allowed to rest because the sun was now setting in the west. As usual, they had to sleep on the hard ground, although blankets were sometimes provided to cover them if the night, as often occurred in desert surrounds, proved cold.

On this night, just before Kodi fell asleep, he again wondered, as he had often recently done, why his Nuba people had not managed to catch up with the Jellaba caravan to rescue him. He assumed that his disappearance from his village would eventually have been discovered and the relevant alarm and search raised. He also believed that the fact that he was missing would finally stimulate the theory of possible connections with the visit of the Arab traders.

Kodi wondered what could possibly have subsequently happened to cause the eventual undoubted pursuit of his Jellaba abductors by his people, not least the adult male members of his extensive family, to fail. The only reasons that his highly intelligent mind could fathom in answer related to two facts.

First, the Jellaba merchants appeared to have eventually astutely chosen to take an unusual route away from Kodi’s village. Second, their subsequent progress could probably not be accurately followed because of the obscuring of their tracks by the heavy and prolonged rainfall that had arrived shortly after their departure.

As Kodi once more contemplated the obvious sad failure of any attempt to retrieve him from the clutches of the Jellaba merchants, just before falling asleep on the western bank of the mighty Nile, he also wondered whether he would ever again see his homeland. His last waking thoughts on this day were about the beautiful remote mountains where he had been born and had lived for his first ten years.

Kodi would, in fact, regularly see his beloved Nuba mountain homeland again over the decades ahead, but only in his dreams.

Chapter ٨ -Nehir Kenari

(8 – Riverbank)

(Wadi Halfa, River Nile, Nubia, northern Sudan, approximately three weeks later, 6th of September 1795)

Coincidentally on the same day that in faraway Paris was born a baby boy named Baraguey d’Hilliers, whom Kodi would eventually meet in later life, the Jellaba caravan 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 in 1795 was the small Nubian village of Wadi Halfa in northern Sudan, which was on the other eastern side of the mighty river and close to the Egyptian border.

On originally reaching the Nile three weeks earlier, the Jellaba merchants had not immediately sought a boat to speed travel because of the obstacle to safe navigation imposed by the river’s major cataracts. Three of these had by then been bypassed but another trio awaited in the north.

Cataracts formed where the Nile was particularly shallow and numerous small boulders broke the surface of the river. There were also many rocky islets and sometimes rapids.

The Nile cataracts were navigable by boat in the rainy season when the water level was higher. However, despite now being this more favourable time of year, the Jellaba merchants had preferred to advance north along the western riverbank.

Progressing north in this manner was slower but safer than by boat. The environment also represented a substantial improvement compared to the recently crossed arid plains and deserts of northern Sudan.

The strip of habitable green fertile land on either side of the Nile might only have been very narrow and, in this part of Sudan in contrast to Egypt, better for the pasturing of animals than for agriculture. Nevertheless, the riverbank provided a very convenient and hospitable route north for the caravan, although much hard marching was still required by those on foot in this slow convoy.

The young naked black boys’ frequent sense of acute humiliation was also now compounded by the fact that they progressed through many bustling riverside communities. These towns and villages were inhabited by fairer-skinned Nubians, whose dwellings often lacked roofs for some rooms, as they were considered unnecessary because of the rarity of rainfall in the region.

Most of the black boys, including Kodi, were accustomed to personal public nakedness, as going without attire in their home villages had been common and had not been considered disgraceful. However, now being paraded in such a state in communities where everyone was dressed and being unclothed was clearly taboo, whilst also degradingly bound, did for the first time instil in them a feeling of acute shame at their nudity.

This feeling was exacerbated by the fact that the naked black boys were frequently loudly ridiculed in the riverside communities through which they passed, particularly by other children. None of them knew the languages used to hurl the abuse at them but the inherent overall derogatory intent was nevertheless still clear. However, what was not obvious in meaning and generally puzzled them were the occasional amused gestures by some of their young tormentors aimed in the direction of their exposed genitals.

Given regular subjection to such humiliating abuse, the black boys were naturally currently rather pleased, after three weeks spent walking along the western bank of the Nile, not to be passing through Wadi Halfa on the other eastern shore. The Jellaba caravan was instead now simply bypassing this small village in order to continue northwards into Egypt without delay. However, Kodi’s personal happiness at not having to tolerate the local children’s insults was tempered by another worry.

By this time, to the astute Kodi, the gestures made by some of the Nubian children towards his exposed genitals worryingly suggested that they knew something that he did not.

Chapter ٩ - Manastır

(9 – Monastery)

(Coptic monastery, near Aswan, Upper [southern] Egypt, approximately three weeks later, 26th of September 1795)

Coincidentally on the same day that in faraway Paris the new national constitution of revolutionary France came into effect, the Jellaba caravan arrived at a Coptic monastery. Progress to this very ancient religious retreat from Wadi Halfa had been much less pleasant than the earlier march along the Nile riverbank.

North of Wadi Halfa, the Nile had cut through a barren stretch of rocky desert that was not supportive of any permanent human settlement. The riverbanks were far less green and fertile and therefore not as friendly.

Nevertheless, the caravan did pass close to a monumental wonder. However, none of the travellers realised this fact, as they advanced slowly in the desired direction.

The massive and magnificent temple of the great Egyptian pharaoh, Ramesses II, at Abu Simbel was currently lost under drifting desert sands. Not until 18 years after Kodi had unknowingly passed nearby were the ruins rediscovered by the Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, who found the top frieze.

Burckhardt later told the Italian explorer, Giovanni Belzoni, about his find and the latter launched a couple of expeditions to the place, eventually forcing an entry into the temple complex during the second of these in 1817. The name of Ramesses II’s splendid monument is allegedly derived from a local boy, Abu Simbel, who guided the re-discoverers to the site, having spotted some of the ruins amidst the shifting sands.

Abu Simbel had, however, not yet been born as the Jellaba caravan, of which Kodi was an unwilling component, passed close to the ancient temple that would one day be named after the young local Nubian. During this stretch of their journey, the naked black boys had been excused the humiliating abuse of children because of the lack of communities but suffered from the deterioration in surroundings. However, they would have much preferred to have been the subject of insults or to have continued to march in such poor prevailing conditions rather than experience what they now encountered inside the Coptic monastery, which was just south of the Egyptian town of Aswan in Upper Egypt.

The name ‘Upper Egypt’ refers to the south of the country, being upriver along the Nile. Conversely, ‘Lower’ is the epithet given to the north.

The Coptics were at this time, and indeed still are, by far the largest Christian community in Egypt. Despite being Muslims, the Ottomans, who by 1795 had ruled the country for almost three centuries, were very tolerant of other religions, including this, to them, infidel Church.

Most Coptics, though, like all non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire, had to pay an extra tax, namely the ‘jizya’. This levy supposedly helped to pay for the costs of being protected by the Sultan’s Islamic armies.

Coptic monks were, however, generally excused from paying the jizya. Such Ottoman generosity must have cost the Imperial treasury a lot because the Christian community had many monasteries throughout Egypt, most of them extremely ancient and some located in very remote locations in order to aid quiet religious contemplation.

After almost three months of travelling from the now very distant Nuba Mountains, the Jellaba caravan currently approached one of these ancient and remote monasteries, which was situated aside a hill in desert surrounds about half a mile from the west bank of the Nile. The religious retreat had clearly seen better days, as the place was badly in need of repair.

The monastery, which was crumbling in places, was constructed of stone and mud-brick, brown ochre in colour, and was surrounded by a tall thin trapezoid wall with some lookout towers. Entrance to the approximately 2½-acre in size complex of buildings inside was via two gates.

Kodi had never seen buildings of stone or brick prior to his arrival at the Nile. However, he was by now more accustomed to the sight, having encountered the Nubian riverside communities.

Nevertheless, Kodi was amazed at the sight of the monastery. As the caravan approached, he could already see the impressive dome, an architectural feature that he had never before viewed, of the oblong church inside peering above the tall walls.

By the time that the caravan arrived before these walls, the nearest gate had already been opened. This development suggested to Kodi that the approach of the Jellaba merchants had been spotted from one of the watchtowers and was both expected and welcome.

Kodi, with the other black boys, next saw some of the monastery’s inhabitants for the first time, as they emerged from inside the opened gate. He could not help but shiver at the sight despite the intense prevailing heat.

The fairer-skinned Coptic monks were all bearded and attired in simple flowing black robes with matching caps. To the perceptive Kodi, their appearance somehow looked sinister rather than reassuring, especially as the faces of a few of them displayed smirks that suggested wickedness not welcome.

The apparent leader of the Coptic monks, who was dressed like his colleagues apart from also displaying a large golden crucifix medallion dangling from his neck, welcomed the Jellaba merchants as if they were long-lost friends. Much hugging and chatter took place between them in a language that they could clearly mutually understand.

As Kodi watched this welcome, he wondered what this place was, whom the black-robed men were and what the golden medallion was meant to signify. The black boy had never heard of the Christian religion, let alone monasteries and monks, although he knew something of Islam because the Arab settlers in the Nuba Mountains followed that faith.

Meanwhile, Kodi’s own people worshipped many gods under the direction of the village holy man, the Kujur, through whom spoke the deities of the likes of the hills, mountains, forests, sun, moon, rain and wind. The Nuba were not to be converted to Islam for a while yet.

After the initial welcome by the apparent leader of the local community had finally finished, the Jellaba merchants and their caravan were invited within the walls of the monastery, where Kodi could now more fully see the other buildings besides the domed church comprising the religious complex. However, his young inexperienced eyes were unable to ascertain externally the exact purpose of several of these constructions.

The unidentified buildings actually included living quarters, consisting mainly of a series of little individual cells with stone beds, a large kitchen and refectory, with seats and benches of mud-brick, and stores, including a water reservoir. However, Kodi was able to recognise the purpose of some of the small barns, which housed domestic animals, and workshops because either their doors were unclosed or they were open-sided.

Kodi was soon to have cause to remember one of these small workshops in particular for the rest of his life.

Chapter ۱٠ - Temizlemek

(10 – Purge)

(Coptic monastery, near Aswan, Upper [southern] Egypt, five days later, 1st of October 1795)

Coincidentally on the same day that in faraway Paris the ruling National Convention of revolutionary France announced the annexation of the former Austrian Netherlands as the ‘Belgian Departments’, Kodi was very hungry. So too were the other approximately forty black boys in his company, with whom he had been unable to indulge in conversation because they all appeared to speak different tribal languages.

The naked black boys had been lodged for five days in a small empty barn, currently devoid of whatever domestic animals previously resided there. Their necks had finally been unbound but their hands remained tied behind them and their ankles had now been similarly restricted. However, their greatest discomfort was simply being confined to the crowded, boring, dark and hot innards of this little mud-brick building whilst being provided with only water for sustenance.

The previous generous supply of food, to which the black boys had become accustomed on their recent long march, had ceased after their arrival in the monastery and they therefore felt not only uncomfortable inside their boring, dark and hot makeshift prison but also starved. However, their distress was now to become even worse.

The supply of water, provided to the bound black boys in bowls for lapping up as if they were the domestic animals usually housed in the barn, suddenly acquired a strange taste. However, none of them refused the liquid, as the regular quenching of the intense thirst, which they quickly acquired whilst incarcerated in the hot environment of the small building, was truly essential for their survival.

Shortly afterwards, all of the black boys, including Kodi, became violently sick, vomiting up what little remained in their stomachs. They all immediately thought that the water that they had just consumed must have been bad and hoped that they would not develop a serious illness as a result. However, they were mistaken.

The water had actually been good. A bad-tasting purgative had, though, been furtively added.

The potion was designed to complete the purging of the black boys’ bodies for what was now fatefully imminent.

Chapter ۱۱ - Başler

(11 – Heads)

(Coptic monastery, near Aswan, Upper [southern] Egypt, several hours later, 1st of October 1795)

The stench in the confined space within the small barn was currently more appalling than ever. The smell of young sweaty and sickly bodies now mixed with that of copious vomit.

Fortunately, the Jellaba merchants’ black adult assistants had previously regularly arrived to attend to the boys’ toilet needs, using buckets and cloths. Consequently, the current noxious pervading odour inside the barn was not worsened by other factors.

The black boys’ current plight was made worse by having their bowls of water removed. They therefore quickly became even more dehydrated in the hot atmosphere in the claustrophobic barn than the vomiting of the contents of their stomachs had caused. However, this situation had been deliberately contrived because there would soon be a need to prevent their bodies from needing to urinate.

A couple of the Jellaba merchants’ black adult assistants eventually began to arrive regularly again but not to provide water, attend to the toilet requirements of the young inmates or perform a much-needed cleaning of the barn. They instead on each occasion just untied the feet of one of the boys and led him outside.

Whilst sitting in the awful stench inside the barn, Kodi watched as, over several hours, the number of his companions dwindled slowly one by one until his own turn arrived to be led outside. The black boy then received a shock comparable to that encountered when he had originally been abducted.

Whilst being led to a certain small workshop, where the only furniture comprised a chair and table, alongside a little mud-brick stove, Kodi noticed the heads of the black boys who had left the barn before him. He only saw these uppermost parts of their anatomies for a good reason.

The black boys’ bodies were buried from the neck downwards in a sandpit in front of the small workshop to where Kodi was being led, and he noticed that there were also some apparently recently dug empty holes there too, one of which had presumably been readied to receive him.

Chapter ۱۲ - Iskemle

(12 – Chair)

(Coptic monastery, near Aswan, Upper [southern] Egypt, shortly afterwards, 1st of October 1795)

Shortly after his shock at seeing the heads of the almost completely buried black boys, the terrified Kodi found himself firmly bound to the chair in the small workshop to which he had been led and where he had initially quickly been washed down. He had struggled against being so tied but the men performing the deed were simply too strong for him, especially as they were assisted by two monks, one elderly and the other younger, who were now devoid of their flowing robes.

The monks, although still rather incongruously wearing their cap headgear, were otherwise clad only in clouts around their waists, similar to the sparse attire that Kodi had been deprived of at the time of his abduction, except for being bigger and black rather than white. However, most worryingly for the boy now arriving in their sinister workshop, the almost naked bodies of these so-called holy men were bloodstained.

Kodi was, of course, still ignorant about the official purpose of the monastery and role of the monks. When he did much later, in another faraway land, discover this information, he received another shock.

Kodi was incredulously shocked to learn that such alleged holy men, supposedly quietly devoted to religious contemplation in remote exile from the rest of the world, could also indulge in a very barbaric, and therefore un-Christian, but lucrative professional sideline. The relevant revelation subsequently made him secretly even more devoted to his tribal gods, although he did superficially acquiesce to a conversion to Islam in order to make his life in his ultimate new environment easier.

The freshly washed Kodi’s arms and hands were now firmly bound behind him to the old but sturdy wooden chair’s backrest, whilst his lower limbs were tied wide apart to the furniture’s own legs. The boy’s mouth was also again gagged, although on this occasion not to prevent him from screaming, as such noise was of no relevance to those to whom this particular sinister workplace belonged. They instead simply did not want their latest young victim to damage himself by seriously biting his own lips or tongue whilst they did what they were about to perpetrate.

Kodi had struggled against being bound to the chair in the workshop, but not so much because of the vision of the buried boys outside and what their horrific predicament might represent. He had instead done so because he did not appreciate the other bloodstains that he had noticed on the seat, some clearly ancient but others very fresh. He also did not like the sight of some of the tools on the adjacent table and the pan on the lit stove, the dark oily contents of which were bubbling.

Waiting on top of the table were several lengths of thin dark leather cord and a pottery pot. There was also a ladle and a few nails. However, most worryingly was the presence of an obviously well-honed very sharp bloodstained razor, similar to those used by barbers.

Unfortunately for Kodi, this blade was not used to shave hair but something else entirely.

Chapter ۱٣ -Tıraş Etmek

(13 – Shave)

(Coptic monastery, near Aswan, Upper [southern] Egypt, shortly afterwards, 1st of October 1795)

The perceptive Kodi quickly began to realise in horror what the razor was actually commonly used to shave when the elder of the two monks knelt before him. The man subsequently started to bind the black boy’s small immature pre-pubescent genitals very tightly with one of the lengths of thin leather cord.

In reaction, Kodi would have shrieked loudly, both in appalled apprehension and in genuine pain because the genital ligature was tied so tight. However, his effective gag muted such a response and so his mental and physical anguish was instead best appreciated from his facial expression, which conveyed pure horror.

Kodi also attempted to display further resistance to his imminent fate by trying in desperation to fight his bondage. However, the ropes that attached him to the chair proved too effective and he found that he could barely move, which was perhaps just as well because a slip by the elder monk in the imminent operation could ultimately have proved fatal for the boy.

Kodi’s eyes next began to expel copious tears when he realised that he could not escape from the chair. His head also started to shake from side to side in an effort to beg that he be spared the imminent deed, the nature of which the intelligent boy now recognised and which was clearly about to be perpetrated because the still kneeling elder monk next collected the razor.

Kodi’s resistance subsequently rapidly faded when his eyes became transfixed by the glistening blade now held by the elder monk, whose own vision focused on the black boy’s bound genitals. However, the man did not then immediately perpetrate the intended deed.

The monk instead waited for a while to ensure that as much as possible of the bloodflow into Kodi’s sexual organs was stemmed. He fully appreciated the importance of doing so.

There were three main reasons why boys did not survive what the monk was about to perpetrate on Kodi. One was simply the mental shock and trauma caused by the deed, whilst another was fatal infection of the resulting terrible wound. The third was the loss of too much blood.

The reason why the Jellaba merchants enlisted the elderly monk to perform certain deeds was that his medical expertise helped to stem the losses from these three causes. He had once been a decent physician and still occasionally practised his former profession to help his monastic colleagues.

The Jellaba merchants used to perform the relevant operations themselves, in an encampment that they especially established just for this purpose not far from the secluded monastery. The area was chosen for the relative isolation, where they could perpetrate certain deeds in privacy and quiet, and also for the proximity to Aswan.

Having now bypassed all six of the Nile’s dangerous cataracts on their way north, the Jellaba merchants finally intended to board boats at Aswan to speed their progress towards the lucrative slave markets of Lower Egypt. Consequently, the area in the vicinity of the monastery proved to be the most expedient for perpetrating a certain deed on the black boys because those who survived the ordeal no longer had to march but could instead recuperate during the voyage down the mighty river.

Losses amongst the black boys, though, as a result of what was perpetrated on them, had run at about two-thirds. The monk-physician had been recruited when he had come across the nearby Jellaba encampment one day, saw what the traders were doing and the relatively crude manner in which they went about their business and suggested that he could do better.

The monk had proved as good as his word because he subsequently reduced losses to only about a third. Given the substantial extra sales revenue that his success created, the Jellaba merchants were very happy to enlist his services for a fee whenever they passed his monastery, which they had now been doing annually for many lucrative years.

The local monastic leader was equally happy to have one of his monks not only indulge in such professional commissions but also to do so within his monastery whilst teaching younger assistants to carry on the lucrative practice. The substantial fees received from the Jellaba merchants, commercially based on success rates, provided the Christian institution with much-needed cash.

The ancient monastery had been in slow decline for centuries, hence the rundown nature of the walls and many buildings. An increasing number of Coptic monks preferred friendlier locations in which to contemplate, where climatic conditions were less harsh and there were fewer problems from the unscrupulous murdering and plundering desert marauders occasionally encountered.

The religious consciences of these particular hypocritical Egyptian Coptic monks in respect of perpetrating certain deeds were salved by two factors. First, they believed that they were doing the Ottoman Empire, to which they owed worldly allegiance and which, of most practical importance, absolved them from taxes, a favour in helping to create servants of a much desired but relatively rare and therefore expensive type. Second, the boys with whom they dealt were clearly not Christians of their own ethnicity but pagans of the, to them, far inferior black race, who were good enough only for servile status in whatever physical form wanted.

The religious consciences of the Islamic Jellaba merchants were similarly salved. However, not being citizens of the Empire but technically instead of the Sultanate of Darfur, they owed the Ottomans no allegiance other than as partners in trade.

Kodi’s eyes were so transfixed by the glistening razor held in the kneeling monk’s grasp that he was now motionless. The black boy even maintained this physical condition when, after what seemed an eternity but was actually only a few minutes, the very sharp blade concerned advanced towards his helpless bound genitals, which were fully exposed between his forcibly splayed legs.

What the traumatised Kodi next saw appeared to him to take place in slow motion, or at least the event always did so in the many nightmares that he was have in the decades ahead, which recalled the appalling happening. In fact, the elder monk was by now so accustomed to and expert at the deed that the operation only took a few seconds.

On reaching Kodi’s helpless genitals and whilst carefully holding the black boy’s penis with his free fingers, the monk’s other hand wielded his razor so speedily and skilfully that his young victim did not immediately realise that his sexual organs had been completely shaved off.

Chapter ۱٤ - Hadım Etme

(14 – Castration)

(Coptic monastery, near Aswan, Upper [southern] Egypt, shortly afterwards, 1st of October 1795)

Amidst his trauma, Kodi only realised that his genitals had been completely shaved off at the base, with both penis and scrotum severed, when the elder monk rather nonchalantly held the sexual organs concerned up by the cockhead and handed them to his younger monastic trainee. The latter smirked happily at the sight. The black boy never later knew whether this obvious expression of pleasure resulted from simple sadism or from satisfaction at a professional job well done.

The younger monk was carrying an old wooden tray, on which the elder now placed Kodi’s freshly severed genitals. His young victim of castration through nullification simultaneously noticed that there were already several sets of young black sexual organs present on the receptacle. However, this perception was to be the boy’s last lucid thought for a while.

Kodi’s rather remarkable composure during the initial part of his nullification had been brought about by deep mental trauma. However, the extreme agony that now pervaded his groin, plus the immense horror of what had just happened to him, finally breached his mind’s defences.

Kodi’s great distress was compounded by also next looking down at his groin and observing, where his genitals had once been, a rush of blood flowing out of the appalling wound created by his emasculation. However, fortunately for the now nullified black boy, his excruciated mental processes were not to operate for much longer.

Having swiftly placed his gruesome tray on the nearby table, the younger monk picked up the ladle. He subsequently used the implement to extract some of the boiling oil from the steaming pan on the stove and he handed the combination to his elder colleague, who was still kneeling in front of Kodi.

Without further ado but with expert accuracy, the elder monk next poured this oil onto Kodi’s groin in a successful attempt to cauterise the awful wound present and stem the loss of blood. In an agonised but common reaction, the black boy instantly fainted.

Kodi’s common and actually sought sudden collapse into agonised unconsciousness now enabled the elder monk more easily to dress the black boy’s nullification wound with a special extract of tallow and wax and untie him from the castration chair. The latest young victim of the man’s well-used razor was subsequently transferred elsewhere.

When Kodi eventually regained agonised consciousness, his immense excruciation was now exacerbated by being immovably buried up to his neck in hot sand, alongside the elder monk’s earlier young black victims.

Chapter ۱٥ - Kum

(15 – Sand)

(Coptic monastery, near Aswan, Upper [southern] Egypt, four days later, 5th of October 1795)

Coincidentally on the same day that in faraway Paris a young army officer named Napoleon Bonaparte successfully defended the ruling National Convention of revolutionary France against an angry mob, Kodi was finally about to be extracted from the hot sand. The freshly nullified boy had been left buried for four days.

Kodi, like many of the other young survivors who shared his ordeal, later believed that the torment of being buried in the sand had been far worse than even his actual nullification, which, after all, had been a very quick process. The boys’ suffering was made worse by the fact that, despite their heads being exposed to the unrelentingly scorching overhead daytime desert sun, they were allowed not only no food but also no water.

The nullified black boys’ ordeal was, however, not meant to be a sadistic torture. Their burial in hot sand was instead supposed to assist haemostasis, or stoppage of the flow of blood, and the prevention of infection of their appalling groin wounds.

What the black boys also did not currently know, because they had all been unconscious when the small pieces of metal had been inserted, was that a nail had been placed inside each of their urethras to prevent potentially fatal stricture of the aperture. Consequently, the supply of drinking water was forbidden whilst they remained buried because the resultant likely need to urinate occasionally might expel the important plug.

The elder monk supervising this devilish post-nullification recovery process had to balance several factors. On one side, there were the needs for vital haemostasis and prevention of infection. On the other, there was the ability of the black boys to survive for several days the ordeal of being buried up to their necks in the hot sand under the scorching sun and without water.

The monk had concluded a long time previously that the majority of the black boys actually stood a better chance of living if treated according to his prescriptions because most were sufficiently hardy to tolerate the treatment. He judged that the minority that was not was anyway the most likely to die from the immediate consequences of nullification. His success statistics seemed to prove his convictions correct, especially as, on this occasion, survival rates were actually slightly higher than usual.

During his time spent covered up to his neck in the hot sand, under the scorching overhead daytime sun without water, Kodi, however, would frequently have in his tormented mind a different opinion to that of the monk-physician. The black boy, in agony from his awful wound, being buried and his tremendous thirst, did not believe that he could possibly survive.

Thankfully for posterity, Kodi was to prove mistaken.

Chapter ۱٦ - Iyileşme

(16 – Recovery)

(Coptic monastery, near Aswan, Upper [southern] Egypt, approximately three weeks later, 26th of October 1795)

Coincidentally on the same day that in faraway Paris the ruling National Convention of revolutionary France formally relinquished power to be succeeded by the ‘Directory’, Kodi was at least still alive inside the Coptic monastery. However, he had often wondered how and sometimes whether he wanted to be.

After finally being carefully extracted from the sand in front of the workshop in which he had been nullified, the almost lifeless Kodi had been granted a little much-needed reviving water, gently cleaned and lain on one of the stone beds in what used to be a monastery dormitory. The other survivors amongst the emasculated black boys were already there or soon joined him. All were now so weak that bonds to keep them from attempting to escape were initially no longer required.

Regrettably, there had as usual been fatalities amongst the black boys. Some had been spotted earlier, dug out and buried in unmarked graves elsewhere, leaving behind unfilled the holes in which they had previously been incarcerated. Others had only been found to be dead when their ordeal in the sand might otherwise have been over.

The now scabby groin wounds of the survivors were carefully scrutinised by the elderly monk-physician to ensure that they were healing well. Having satisfied himself, he and his monastic assistant subsequently gave their young recovering patients copious amounts of water to drink, sometimes forcibly more than the new nullified black eunuchs now actually wanted.

The quick result, as the elder monk well knew would happen, was an urgent need to urinate but the boys’ urethras were now scabbed over, with the inserted nails entrapped inside. However, this situation did not last for long.

The sudden urgent need to urinate copiously rapidly caused the nullified black boys, now relocated for the purpose to the communal dormitory latrines, to squat and squeal. Large amounts of their scabs and the implanted nails were subsequently speedily, and initially painfully, washed away.

Having later returned his young patients back to their stone beds, the elder monk subsequently carefully paid further attention to each groin wound in turn. He gently scraped away whatever remaining scabbing he could and now dressed them with an extract of acacia bark, which was changed regularly over the next few weeks.

This latest potion was designed more to assist healing than prevent haemostasis, which should now have been permanently stemmed. The extract of acacia bark, when regularly changed, also helped to stop the blockage of urethras.

The elimination of the possibility of stricture to the urethras was aided too by encouraging the consumption of further plentiful supplies of water and the resultant frequent need to urinate, which was now assisted by the demonstrated use of special metal quills as catheters. The nullified boys found that they were better squatting to expel their liquid waste and these little tools helped the targeting of the fluid in the direction desired in order to avoid embarrassingly messy and unhygienic splashing.

Those boys found now to suffer not uncommon incontinence were additionally shown the purpose of and prompted to utilise little plugs. Fortunately for Kodi, he was not one of them.

By the time that the scheduled three weeks of recuperation had elapsed, only one more nullified black boy had died. Fortunately, Kodi was one of the remaining survivors. He was also almost fully physically if not mentally recovered, so much so that his bonds were returned to deter thoughts of escape, although he was grateful to have his hands temporarily released whenever he needed to urinate so that he could use the quill catheter.

Kodi’s mind remained naturally somewhat traumatised after what had happened to him. As usual for such boys, mental recovery would take far longer than physical and, in fact, for him was never fully achieved, as was evidenced by his later regular nightmares.

Nevertheless, Kodi’s mind did manage to begin to contemplate his future. Part of this process involved speculating as why the Jellaba merchants and their confederates in the monastery had so horrifically taken away his genitals. They were not telling, and the young black boy’s intelligent but inexperienced mind could therefore only guess that he might have been nullified for strange religious reasons, although there had been no obvious ceremonial associated with the deed.

Kodi’s mind was still speculating about the reason for his nullification and what the future next held for him when he and the other approximately thirty young black survivors, in fresh bondage, were now loaded aboard open ox-drawn wagons in readiness to depart from the monastery. None regretted leaving the religious retreat, a month to the day after they had arrived, because the place had proved to be so evil towards them.

The local Coptic monks, though, were later to have cause to regret deeply that one of the latest batch of freshly created young black nullified eunuchs had survived the ordeal in their monastery.

Chapter ۱٧ - Yelkenli Seyahati

(17 – Cruise)

(River Nile, Egypt, late October – early December 1795)

The Jellaba merchants next took their new and valuable young black nullified eunuchs to nearby Aswan for reloading, along with the traders’ other merchandise, from the ox-drawn wagons onto a boat. One consolation for the boys during this transfer from monastery to river vessel was that they were no longer naked, with their groins, now devoid of normal male genitalia, shamefully exposed to public view. They instead wore crude loincloths, designed, however, not to hide their disgrace but just to keep the covered parts clean in a further effort to prevent infection.

Awaiting the black boys in Aswan was a kind of large Arab sailboat called a ‘gaiassa’. The vessel had a tall and rather disproportionate-looking bow and a huge rudder on the flatter stern. Such craft were both river- and sea- worthy and were contemporarily common to the Nile and the southeast Mediterranean and Red Seas.

The gaiassa’s awkward shape was more than compensated by her lovely giant double lateen sails of creamy light calico material and with cordage rigging, which would now provide the motion to take the young blacks to their new lives as nullified eunuchs. This enforced cruise northwards, along the Nile on the riverboat, also provided more immediate new experiences and this time these could be enjoyed, insofar as recuperating freshly emasculated bound boys, who had been abducted from home and were on their way to unknown futures as slaves, could do so.

Kodi, along with the other new young black nullified eunuchs and the Jellaba merchants and their assistants, were accommodated on the deck under a type of tarpaulin cover set up at the stern of the gaiassa, which provided refreshing shade from the unrelentingly hot overhead daylight sun. Here, the boys’ welfare was now carefully looked after, for they currently represented highly precious commodities, much more valuable than when they possessed genitalia. From their various viewpoints, they could also view the passing scenery.

Kodi had not before sailed on a boat and, in fact, the first time that he had ever noticed such a vessel was when he had initially reached the Nile over two fateful months previously. He had actually then seen a ‘naggar’, which possessed a rudder similar to that of a gaiassa but only a single lugsail and was designed to tackle the mighty river’s cataracts.

After the gaiassa set sail northwards along the Nile, Kodi was also to see many other amazing sights as the boat slowly progressed. To such a curious and intelligent boy as him, the Nubian communities on the mighty river in Sudan had been fascinating when compared to his tribal village of round thatched mud-huts in the distant Nuba Mountains. The Coptic monastery had initially been even more intriguing, although he now preferred not to think of that particular place for, when he did, horrible memories always returned to haunt him.

Sight from the back of the ox-drawn wagon of the first Egyptian town that Kodi had visited, namely Aswan, had been similarly even more interesting to Kodi in comparison to the less sophisticated Nubian communities of northern Sudan. However, now he was to view from the gaiassa’s boat-deck some of the ancient splendours of Egypt that were still located on or near the Nile’s riverbanks.

Despite still recuperating from his recent mental and physical traumas, Kodi gazed in awe as the gaiassa passed the ancient ruins at places such as Luxor and Karnak. However, his fascination could not be maintained when the Great Pyramids were nearby. The Nile had changed course over the millennia and these particular monuments were, like others, sadly no longer quite visible from the mighty river, in this case not least because of the intervening west-bank town of Giza.

Just beyond Giza along the Nile was the city of Cairo, which had supplanted Alexandria as capital of Egypt and was to be the place in which Kodi’s future destiny would be fatefully decided.

Chapter ۱٨ - Kahire

(18 – Cairo)

(Al-Rudah Island, River Nile, Cairo, Egypt, 8th of December 1795)

“Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives, I trust I do not deceive myself when I indulge the persuasion that I have never met you at any period when more than at the present the situation of our public affairs has afforded just cause for mutual congratulation, and for inviting you to join with me in profound gratitude to the Author of all Good for the numerous and extraordinary blessings we enjoy.” These were the opening words of George Washington’s seventh annual ‘State of the Union’ Address, spoken on the same day that Kodi arrived in Cairo.

The cruise down the Nile from Aswan had been slow because the Jellaba merchants frequently ordered the gaiassa to stop so that they could conduct some trading in the more important riverside communities. They had bought and sold a lot but none of their precious new young black nullified eunuchs were put on the market, as they appreciated that prices for such valuable commodities would be much higher in Cairo.

In 1795, most of the Cairo in which the gaiassa eventually arrived was located on the eastern bank of the Nile, as the western would not be substantially developed until the middle of the 19th century. However, the boat moored on neither side but on a jetty on one of the islands situated in this part of the mighty river.

On Al-Rudah Island, near the jetty at which the gaiassa had moored, there was a large luxurious mansion. This palatial residence befitted one of the two senior military officers who were in effect currently the unofficial joint rulers of Egypt.

Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire. However, the country had managed to secure a substantial degree of local autonomy and was presently under the governance of a couple of ‘Beys’.

‘Bey’ was a Turkish honorific title roughly equivalent to a European Duke. However, neither of the two effective current rulers of Egypt had aristocratic backgrounds because both were also Mamluks.

Mamluks were an ancient order of slaves, most of whom had originally been secured as boys from poor non-Muslim backgrounds in the Caucasus, with many being abducted. They were subsequently sent to Egypt, where they were forcibly converted both to Islam and soldiering in order to serve their new religious and political masters in military capacities. Accepting the new religion of course necessitated being circumcised.

Few Mamluks ever later attempted to escape from their new lives to return to their homelands. Such inaction was testament to the proficiency of their indoctrination and their satisfaction with their revised roles, which generally offered much better lifestyles than could be expected as a peasant in the Caucasus.

Over time, the Mamluks developed into a powerful military caste, which was finally able to seize ultimate power. For example, Sultans from the order had ruled Egypt from 1250 until 1517 when the Ottomans conquered the country. However, the institution was allowed to continue in order to serve the new rulers.

Under the Ottomans, Mamluks were generally freed from slavery, or ‘manumitted’, after completing when young their Islamic and military training and, because of their military importance, they thereafter lived privileged lifestyles. However, partly because their sons grew up in such relative comfort, such offspring were banned from following their fathers into the order. For the Turkish Sultans, such proscription also handily prevented potentially dangerous soldierly dynasties from establishing.

The Mamluks, who in 1795 in Egypt numbered about 60,000, of whom approximately a quarter were cavalry, were consequently forced to seek a continuous influx of fresh young recruits to maintain their strength. In order also to preserve the so-called racial pureness of their order, they therefore annually sought thousands of boys from the Caucasus in particular and the securing, if necessary by abduction, of such children proved a lucrative profession for the relevant slavers.

Contemporary Ottoman Egypt was supposed to be ruled on behalf of the Sultans by a Governor, or ‘Pasha’. However, in actuality, the occupant of this position was frequently just a figurehead if he was indeed present in the country at all.

Because of their local military importance, power more often rested with a council of the seven most significant Mamluk Beys. This body was called a ‘divan’, which was a name applied to other similar Ottoman institutions and derived from the low couches on which members sat cross-legged whilst conducting business.

The influence of this particular Egyptian divan of the seven most senior Mamluk Beys meant that the council could unofficially but effectively veto the decisions of any resident Pasha who wanted a quiet life. Real executive power in the country therefore often principally lay in the hands of this body, and in particular with the two most important members. These were the Amir al-Bilad, or ‘Commander of the Land’, and the Amir al-Hajj, or ‘Commander of the Pilgrimage to Mecca’, who essentially acted as military and political counterweights to each other.

At the time of Kodi’s arrival in Cairo, the Amir al-Hajj was Ibrahim Bey, who was of original Georgian background, his real surname being Sinjikashvili. He had been born in the little village of Martkopi, near Tbilisi, and had as a boy been abducted by Turkish slavers.

The Amir al-Bilad was another Georgian of similar background, Murad Bey, but Kodi was not to meet this man. The new young black nullified eunuch would only encounter Ibrahim.

Ibrahim Bey resided in the mansion on Al-Rudah Island, where the Amir al-Hajj would fatefully determine the boy’s future.

Chapter ۱٩ - Bey

(19 – Bey)

(Al-Rudah Island, River Nile, Cairo, Egypt, 8th December 1795)

Occasionally, the Turkish Sultans in Constantinople attempted to re-establish the complete authority of their Pashas in Egypt at the expense of the local Mamluk Beys. The last time that such an event had occurred began in 1786, as an ultimate result of which both Ibrahim and Murad had fled into exile in Upper [southern] Egypt. However, because of their recognised capability, they were recalled and restored to their positions by the Ottomans in 1791 when there was a sudden urgent need to ensure the maintenance of good order in Cairo. An outbreak of plague had raged in the city, during which their government successors had perished.

Although local power once more effectively lay in the hands of the two Beys at the time of Kodi’s arrival in Cairo, neither wanted a repetition of their earlier overthrow. Consequently, both attempted to maintain harmonious relations with the current Ottoman Sultan, the young reforming Selim III. They attempted to do so by, for example, ensuring that the country’s annual tribute was not only remitted on time but also sent to Constantinople embellished with gifts.

Both Beys specialised in different types of gifts. One of Ibrahim’s was young black nullified eunuchs, for which the Ottoman court, nicknamed ‘Baba Ali’, or ‘High Gate’ in English and most commonly ‘La Sublime Porte’ in French, appeared to have an insatiable appetite.

The court’s nickname derived from the time when the originally nomadic Turks first emerged into history from the steppes of central Asia in the 9th century. The ‘High Gate’ referred to the tall entrance of their Sultan’s portable pavilion tent through which people had to pass for audiences.

Ibrahim Bey had first encountered the particular Jellaba merchants, who specialised in creating young black nullified eunuchs and had abducted Kodi for the purpose, when he had been in exile in Upper Egypt. He had maintained contact ever since, as he frequently desired to buy the choicest of the comparatively rare and therefore precious commodities that they supplied, initially for his own household but also now for gifting to the Ottoman Sultan.

The first literal port of call for the annual visit of the Jellaba merchants to Cairo was consequently always to Al-Rudah Island, where they knew that the rich and powerful Amir al-Hajj would pay above the invariably high anyway market rate for the relevant commodities. Ibrahim Bey himself always personally made the relevant selection from the choice on offer.

The freshly washed, groomed and unbound latest annual batch of new young black nullified eunuchs would be lined up naked on the riverside lawn of the Amir al-Hajj’s mansion for the personal inspection of Ibrahim Bey. The current group, of which Kodi was a member, was no exception.

Consequently, Kodi found himself standing humiliatingly naked on the well-manicured grass of the relevant lawn. The black boy wanted to hide the disgrace of the now healed wound where his genitals should have been but he and his equally shamed young companions were compelled instead to keep their hands at their sides. The area would be one of the most important parts of their anatomy that their prospective purchaser would want to view.

This prospective purchaser now soon emerged from his luxurious mansion. Kodi discovered him to be a bearded and tanned Caucasian man, about 60 years old, who was colourfully dressed in a loose green shirt and baggy red trousers, with a white turban and yellow boots of soft leather. He carried a sheathed scimitar and dagger plus, in holders each decorated with a brass crescent and star, a brace of what the black boy was later able to identify as pistols.

Ibrahim Bey approached the line of new young black nullified eunuchs with what, as a result of subsequent experience, Kodi would later be able to describe as the authoritative and proud demeanour of a very senior army officer. With military efficiency, the Amir al-Hajj then quickly walked along the fronts and backs of the displayed boys before returning to face them.

Ibrahim Bey next again walked along the fronts of the new young black nullified eunuchs but on this occasion more slowly. As the Amir al-Hajj’s passed each individual boy, he paused, looked again at the wounds to their groins, as well as into their eyes, before tapping each on their left shoulder with his right hand and making a simultaneous announcement.

Not yet knowing the language in which Ibrahim Bey spoke, none of the boys could understand what was being said. However, the clever Kodi did recognise that on each occasion the clearly important man used one of only three words.

In fact, Ibrahim Bey was announcing ‘Here’, ‘Porte’ and ‘No’. The first two declarations indicated that the Amir al-Hajj wanted to buy respectively for his own household or as a gift for the Ottoman Sultan, whilst the third was a rejection and the relevant boy would have to find a purchaser at the local slave market in Cairo.

In respect of Kodi, because the boy was one of the prettiest on display and Ibrahim Bey appreciated that the Ottoman court only liked young servants who were pleasing to the eye, the Amir al-Hajj fatefully announced “Porte!”

Chapter ۲٠ - Eğitim

(20 - Schooling)

(Bulaq, Cairo, Egypt, approximately four months later, 9th of March 1796)

Coincidentally on the same day that in faraway Paris a young general named Napoleon Bonaparte married the widowed Joséphine de Beauharnais, Kodi and the other new young black nullified eunuchs, destined to be gifted to the Ottoman Sultan, embarked on another gaiassa. Ibrahim Bey had, as usual, been very generous towards his suzerain, as he was sending a total of twelve such precious boys to the Porte.

These boys embarked on the gaiassa in Cairo’s riverport of Bulaq, which was in the northwest of the city, and, on this occasion, they were not just attired in makeshift loincloths as they had been in Aswan. They were instead dressed in colourful and expensive silk kaftans, which were full-sleeved tunics reaching down to the ankles, buttoned at the front and worn with a sash around the waist. Slippers of the finest quality also covered their feet. None of the boys had ever worn so much.

The latest batch of new young black nullified eunuchs to be gifted to the Ottoman Sultan with the annual tribute from Egypt was not to be despoiled by being presented in unseemly cheap attire. To ensure this outcome they had been supplied with several similar outfits.

Nor was the latest batch of new young black nullified eunuchs to arrive in Constantinople in an ignorant state, as there had been two reasons why the boys destined to be gifts for the Ottoman Sultan had spent the last four months in Cairo. First, the ships of the Turkish navy, upon one of which they would sail to their new lives, did not normally venture to sea in the winter months because of the dangers of seasonal storms. Second, the delay afforded Ibrahim Bey the opportunity to ensure that his presents acquired some schooling in the culture, language, religion, strict etiquette, clothing and types of duties that would confront them at the Ottoman court.

Consequently, the new young black nullified eunuchs had been sent to a school, especially established for the purpose in a well-guarded building on another of the islands of the Nile in Cairo. The establishment was staffed by highly capable foreign teachers, who had all once served in some capacity in the Ottoman court.

The boys were securely confined and closely watched in this school but were no longer bound, although discipline was strict, with beatings inflicted for lack of attention or ability. Here, they also began to learn of the nature of the lives for which they were destined.

The new young black nullified eunuchs were first introduced to Turkish court clothing and hygiene and then to the language. The latter, once mastered, led in turn to the other aspects of life in the Ottoman court for which they were destined.

Kodi now demonstrated his immense intellect by easily surpassing the other boys in learning ability. By the time that he left the special school for the gaiassa in the riverport of Bulaq, he was amazingly not only fluent in the Turkish language but also literate.

Kodi had additionally quickly absorbed the other teachings that he had received in respect of the life that he was expected to lead in future, including those relating to Islam. However, the boy had only superficially accepted conversion into this religion to avoid trouble. He still had a fondness for his tribal gods.

There was, of course, one aspect of Kodi’s ostensible conversion to Islam that differed from that of boys who were destined to be Mamluks and to be members of the other similar important military order, which he was fatefully soon to encounter, namely the Janissaries. He did not need to be circumcised.

As Kodi eventually embarked on the gaiassa in Bulaq, the amazed teachers, whom he was now leaving behind in Cairo, agreed that they had never previously encountered a boy of any colour, race or status who had been so clever.

Chapter ۲۱ - Kalyon

(21 - Galleon)

(Damietta, Damietta [western] Branch of the River Nile, Lower [northern] Egypt, two days later, 11th of March 1796)

Whilst the dozen new young black nullified eunuchs sailed north on the gaiassa from Cairo along the Nile, eventually taking the western Damietta branch through the mighty river’s delta, they were no longer bound. There were three reasons for this development.

First, Ibrahim Bey did not want his gifts to the Ottoman Sultan to display rope-marks, or similar created by chains. Such physical blemishes would not only detract from the boys’ appearance but also might suggest that they were undisciplined.

Second, the new young black nullified eunuchs were anyway under the careful close guard of some of Ibrahim Bey’s most able and loyal soldiers. These Mamluks were to remain with the boys all the way to Constantinople.

Third, the Mamluk guards considered that, even if their charges did sometimes contemplate trying to escape from such security on the boats on which they now travelled, they would surely recognise that such attempts would ultimately prove hopeless. The soldiers’ belief was reinforced by the fact that they knew that the new young black nullified eunuchs had been indoctrinated during their recent schooling in Cairo that flight back to their distant homelands would certainly be impossible.

The new young black nullified eunuchs had been reminded about the vast distances and inhospitable lands across which they had already travelled. They had also received wise cogent advice that going in the reverse direction on their own without help would surely not succeed, even if they managed to avoid detection as escaped slaves, which was highly unlikely, given their skin colour in an Arab country. They were additionally appraised about the horrific punishments that would be inflicted upon them once they had been inevitably recaptured.

In contrast to these metaphorical ‘sticks’, the ‘carrots’ in favour of not attempting escape with which the new young black nullified eunuchs were indoctrinated during their schooling concerned the worthiness of their proposed lives in Constantinople. They had been told that they were to serve mighty magnates, possibly in important roles by means of which they too could acquire some personal eminence. Such propaganda was reinforced by their compulsory conversion to Islam and associated preaching of connected doctrine.

As with the recruitment of Mamluk boys, such indoctrination usually worked with new young black nullified eunuchs, especially since they too had been taken from poor and remote regions, where future prospects did not promise much, to, to them, amazing and rich lands. Most of them also did not fancy returning home in their shameful emasculated state. The latest group destined for life in the service of the Ottoman Sultan was no exception, except for the highly intelligent Kodi.

Kodi now accepted the impossibility of escape and return to his beloved Nuba Mountains. However, despite superficial appearances designed for an easier life, he furtively declined to accept Islam or complete subjugation to his new Ottoman masters.

Kodi instead currently secretly continued to believe in and occasionally pray to the pantheon of his Nuba gods. The boy also determined that he would ultimately not be a mere servile slave in the Ottoman court but someone of true greatness.

The gaiassa, on which the well-clothed and unbound Kodi, along with the other new young black nullified eunuchs, was travelling, finally arrived at Damietta two days after leaving Cairo. This port, after which the eponymous western branch of the Nile Delta that the boat had just sailed along was named, was about 120 miles upriver from the Egyptian capital and only 8 from the Mediterranean Sea.

Damietta was on the eastern bank of the eponymous branch of the Nile. The place had long replaced Alexandria as the most important of Egypt’s seaports.

The destruction of the Pharos lighthouse, which had been one of the wonders of the ancient world, in 14th century earthquakes hastened Alexandria’s decline. After the subsequent loss through disinterested neglect of the canal link to the Nile, the once great city, established by Alexander the Great, had by now been reduced to nothing more than a small fishing village, albeit one set amongst some splendid ruins.

In Damietta, Kodi and the other new young black nullified eunuchs were again transferred, on this occasion from the gaisassa to a much larger seagoing sailing ship. This vessel was another marvel to the boys for it was a three-deck Ottoman galleon, with over 80 canons.

There were also several other similar galleons in the port, amongst which the annual Egyptian tribute for the Ottoman Sultan, plus associated gifts, would be spread for safety against the threat of storms and pirates. For similar reasons of security, the mighty vessels would also soon sail as a flotilla.

Only one, though, would have the fateful privilege of taking Kodi to Constantinople.

Chapter ۲۲ - Konstantiniyye

(22 - Constantinople)

(Golden Horn, Constantinople, Turkey, approximately one month later, 12th of April 1796)

Coincidentally on the same day that in Italy a young general named Napoleon Bonaparte won his first battle in his Italian Campaign at Montenotte, the great galleon, on which Kodi and his fellow new young black nullified eunuchs were sailing, safely arrived at Constantinople with the rest of the flotilla. The boys now viewed another wonder, namely the splendid skyline of the huge metropolis, built on seven hills like Rome, which was to be their home city for the rest of their lives.

Constantinople was at the time the second most populous city in Europe after London and the fifth in the world. The metropolis was situated on a triangular promontory jutting out from the western side of the narrow Bosphorus, the strait that, with the adjacent Sea of Marmara immediately to the south and the Dardanelles beyond, separated Europe from Asia. Kodi’s galleon anchored in the deepwater inlet to the north, which was named the ‘Golden Horn’ because of its shape and the sparklingly colourful effect of sunlight on the water at certain times of the day and provided a magnificent natural sheltered harbour, offering particularly fine mooring.

From Kodi’s current position, standing with his fellow new young black nullified eunuchs on the deck of the galleon and looking south, the skyline was full of many fascinating buildings, including copious towers and minarets and the magnificent domes of Hagia Sophia and the nearby Blue Mosque. None of the boys, of course, presently recognised any of these constructions, including the particular palatial complex, surrounded by tall walls, on the extreme left of the promontory before them, called ‘Sarayburnu’ or ‘Seraglio Point’.

In fact, this palatial complex represented the black boys’ actual new home.

Chapter ۲٣ - Kayık

(23 - Caique)

(Golden Horn, Constantinople, Turkey, shortly afterwards, 12th of April 1796)

Kodi and his fellow new young black nullified eunuchs first began to realise that the buildings on Seraglio Point were to be significant in their lives when they were disembarked from the galleon onto an ornate caique. The latter was a light but long and generally colourfully painted rowboat, or ‘skiff’, contemporarily common on the waters around Constantinople, not least the Golden Horn, and indeed the whole of the eastern Mediterranean. However, the vessel onto which Kodi and his young companions were boarded was exceptionally big and luxurious. Such ostentation resulted from the fact that the transport belonged to a very important man, whose banner, depicting his emblem of office, flew from a little pole at the stern.

The caique in question was not as large or luxurious as that belonging to the Ottoman Sultan, the size and ostentation of which no one in Constantinople was allowed to match let alone excel. Nevertheless, the vessel was still ornately decorated, with gold leaf covering many carvings and very comfortable leather seats. The number of exotically but neatly liveried oarsmen was also notable, and they managed to steer the young black passengers and their Mamluk guards efficiently to the northern shore of Seraglio Point with commendable speed.

The oarsmen’s accomplishment was especially commendable because the Golden Horn, like the nearby Bosphorus, was crammed with many other boats of various sizes, some at anchor and others in motion. Kodi was very impressed with the way that the caique managed to steer the way quickly to land in a zigzag fashion through the throng without collision. In fact, the boy was later to learn that other moving vessels deliberately ensured that they gave this particular skiff a wide berth, not wanting to arouse the anger of the very important owner, who was clearly identifiable from the fluttering stern banner.

Awaiting Kodi and his fellow new young black nullified eunuchs on the shore of Seraglio Point were other exotically garbed adults, whose ebony facial hue matched that of the arriving boys.

Chapter ۲٤ - Sarayı

(24 – Palace)

(Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, shortly afterwards, 12th of April 1796)

Yet another wonder awaited Kodi on the shore of Seraglio Point. By now the black boy had already been witness to some splendid ostentation, not least at Ibrahim Bey’s mansion in Cairo. However, such sights were nothing to what he was about not only to view but also to live amongst.

Kodi and his young companions were handed over on a jetty on the northern shoreline of Seraglio Point by their Mamluk guards to the waiting black men, who had clearly been expecting their arrival. The two groups of adults had simultaneously exchanged words of greeting and information.

After checking the appearances of their new acquisitions to ensure that there were no flaws, the new custodians of the new young black nullified eunuchs subsequently guided the nervous boys along a path leading up the steep terraced hill behind the place of their disembarkation from the caique. The latter vessel simultaneously returned their previous sentinels back to the Turkish galleon, which presumably represented the first step of their ultimate return to Egypt and their leader, Ibrahim Bey.

Little was said between the black men and boys as they advanced up the hill. The new young arrivals were anyway too awed and nervous to want to indulge in much conversation, not least because one of the now nearby sights was that of the magnificent and towering domed Hagia Sophia.

The party eventually arrived before a huge arched gateway not far from the Hagia Sophia, which was flanked by tall walls, surmounted by a little wooden apartment and called the ‘Bâb-ı Hümâyûn’, or ‘Gate of Majesty’. The boys were guided through this western portal into a domed passage, on either side of which were small rooms accommodating the colourfully uniformed soldiers on guard.

These soldiers, seeing the adult black escorts, let the party pass without interference or question into the first westerly court, or ‘Alay Meydanı’, of the Sultan’s residence. This place, which was the setting for much royal ceremonial, possessed amidst pleasant parkland numerous fountains and various scattered service buildings and amenities.

These buildings and amenities included a bakery, hospital, mint, wood-yard and market, where agricultural produce from the palace gardens was sold. The setting also possessed military barracks, accommodation for other servants of the outer palace and an ancient Byzantine church that was rather ironically now used as an armoury.

A path leading eastwards downhill through this first parkland court brought Kodi his initial introduction to the Gülhane Garden, which was later to be of such sentimental significance to him. On the descent, he passed what is now called the ‘Çinili’ or ‘Tiled’ Kiosk. This large pleasure pavilion had been constructed on the orders of Mehmed II and was named after the exquisite ceramics, mainly of blue and turquoise, which adorned the whole building.

Kodi did not at this time, however, pass by a ceremonial kiosk at the entrance to the Gülhane Garden. The building concerned had not yet been built, as a vantagepoint to watch parades, by a certain later Sultan, who was to be of immense importance in the life of the arriving black boy.

Kodi did, though, by walking straight across the Gülhane Garden, come across older kiosks on both sides, including one in which basket-weavers worked to create wicker containers to accommodate the agricultural produce grown within the palace grounds. He also encountered a tall and very ancient column, which had stood for about 1½ millennia and commemorated a Roman victory against the Goths.

After walking eastwards about three hundred yards across this first court, Kodi and his young companions were eventually brought to another huge gateway, on this occasion one that was crenellated and flanked by two tall octagonal pointed towers as well as more walls. This portal was called the ‘Bâb-üs Selâm’, or ‘Gate of Salutation’, or alternatively and more simply the ‘Orta Kapi’, or ‘Middle Gate’.

The Gate of Salutation led into the second palace court, the ‘Divan Meydanı’, which was set around yet more ornate gardens, which had once been partially wooded and inhabited by animals pleasing to the eye, such as peacocks and gazelles. Much more gruesomely, the decapitation of traitors was sometimes carried out on the other side of this portal. The severed heads would subsequently be exhibited outside on blocks of stones to the right, whilst the executioners washed their hands in a nearby fountain that eventually came to be named after them.

The first court was accessible to any permitted member of the public who had business with the palace whereas the second was restricted primarily to officials and servants. Nevertheless, Kodi and his young companions passed through the Gate of Salutation unchallenged because of recognition by the guarding soldiers of the boys’ adult black escorts and their mission.

After passing through, Kodi and his young companions saw that ornate porticoed buildings surrounded the second court’s gardens. On the right or southern side was a line of structures with small domed chimneys, which were the vast palace kitchens that catered for literally thousands of people every day.

On the left or northern side was a complex of other buildings, some of which were stables housing the horses of the Sultan, who was the only person permitted to ride in this second court. There was also another armoury and some important government offices. The latter included the outer treasury, or ‘Dis Hazine’, and the suite in which the ‘Divan Odasi’, or ‘Council of State’, of Viziers met four times per week and above which protruded the tall ‘Tower of Justice’.

The whole second court was named after this Divan, whose meetings were conducted under the leadership of the Grand Vizier. A light pilaff of spiced rice or wheat with meat was often simultaneously consumed, whilst messengers and clerks scurried around, sometimes bringing documents summoned from the nearby national archives.

The Sultan often observed the proceedings of the Divan. He did so from his adjacent private apartments by means of a small curtained metal grill located above where his Grand Vizier sat.

These adjacent private apartments were essentially a huge labyrinth of about three hundred halls and chambers, various dormitories and service rooms, nine Turkish bath suites, or ‘hammams’, two mosques and a hospital, all interlinked by a maze of corridors and courtyards. The complex, known as the ‘Grand Seraglio’, housed the Sultan’s closest family and huge harem and was carefully screened from the outside world.

The luxurious but highly secluded Seraglio formed the left or northern part of the third and most restricted inner palace court, or ‘Enderun’, called the ‘Dar’üs Saade’ or ‘Abode of Felicity’. This name derived not from the happiness achieved from being the home of the harem but from that acquired simply from the honour of being the residence of the Sultan.

The Abode of Felicity was formally accessed through an eponymous entrance, the ‘Bâb-üs Saade’, or ‘Gate of Felicity’, which was located at the opposite end of the second court from the Gate of Salutation. However, this portal did not provide the means of admittance for Kodi.

Kodi’s adult black escorts instead guided him and his young companions to another entrance, one situated on the left of the second court between the Divan Odasi and the Dis Hazine. This more minor gateway was called the ‘Arabalar Kapisi’, or ‘Carriage Gate’, and led immediately to the quarters in the Seraglio of the palace’s black eunuchs, who were all of the ‘sandali’ type, meaning that the whole of their genitals had been removed.

This gateway also brought Kodi to his new life.

(To be concluded in Part Iki [Two] – ‘Haremağası’)