LIFE IN TURKEY.

Evening Star, Issue 11893, 22 May 1903, Page 1

LIFE IN TURKEY.

The reason why Turkish women are not taught to write is (sayß Halil Halid, a Turk, in Lis recent work) that formerly girls in Turkey were not allowed to learn the mystery of caligraphy. We have had some excellent poetesses in days gone by, but none of them could write—they dictated their inspirations. The common explanation given of this traditional prohibition—for it is a custom rather than a rule—was that if girls once learned writing they might have indulged in talwmanic pastimes, and evenfcu ally have become witches. As a matter of fact, the real reason was quite different. There was a fear, perhaps not ill-founded', that having once learned to write they might hasten to make use of tho accomplishment by composing love-letters to young men with whom they could not otherwise communicate, for the strict seclusion of females cut off all intercourse between young people of opposite sexes almost as soon as they have ceased to be infants. This absurd, in fact harmful, prohibition has of late, and for some time past, been losing its force. But it was still strictly observed in my mother's younger days, and so she was not allowed to learn to write. *

My mother passes a most retired life in her town and summer houses. In town there is a market-place situated a few minutes' distance from our house, which she has never seen in her whole life. She went, however, to Mecca on a pilgrimage some five years ago. ° At the age of fourteen, for having lent his aid in a bride-lifting escapade, the author was sent to live in the house of an ur.cle, who is thus described :—Although thoroughly honest, sober, and pious in the extreme, he had fallen into some of the old failings and habits of Constantinople officialdom, such as polygamy. When I went to his house he nad three wives, all living together with their numerous children and many female attendants, in his harem—that is to say, in the ladies' section of his house. _. His wives were all Circassians. He bought, emancipated, and married them at different tims, and, unlike some other polygamists, he kept them in one house. It was as wonderful as uncommon to see how they all obeyed him implicitly; and though a man of the sternest disposition, he treated them all kindly and with a perfect fairness. They may have bated one an-

other at heart, but etiquette, and a strict ceremony of precedence were always observed by them. The children of the different wives were more markedly jealous of each other than were their mothers. Before marrying these three Circassian wives my uncle nad been married to a lady, in whose lifetime he could not take advantage of the existence of the system of polygamy, because she was the daughter of a family, of social distinction. There are some noteworthy remarks on polygamy in general, and there is too much justice in some qf Mr Halid's criticisms : What surprises me most (he says) is the injudicious criticism of polygamy by some Europeans. Are there not many men in Europe who, besides their lawful wife at home, have paramours elsewhere? This is worse than the polygamy of the Moslem Orient, as in the one case the plurality of female companions of life has a legal aspect, and the issue of the union is considered legitimate, while, on the other hand, the unfortunate offspring of the union libre of Europe are disinherited outcasts, and their mothers can at any moment be thrown into prostitution. A practical suggestion for the spread of trade arises out of a discussion of the harem system:—A lesson is to be learned from missionaries in pushing British commerce in the East. A very large proportion of the success in Oriental countries gained by missionaries is due to the ladies who assist them, for naturally they alone can get at the women of the East. What applies to the spread of religion applies also to the spread of trade, and the work done by. the Zenana Missions should be a sufficient indication of what a trading association on the same lines could effect. Equally it should show the British commercial* houses which have considerable connections with the East that lady agents to display and sell their poods would be of great assistance to them. There are many Mussulman women who cannot go to markets and shops, and their custom would be practically assured to the firms which sent goods to their houses by lady agents, more especially such goods as are required for household use. In Turkey, Roman Catholic nuns have already adopted this method of business, and they have numerous customers among Mohamedan women for the woollen stiffs, cloth, stockings, shawls, and such things, which they in their own convents, Mr Halil Halid's narrative captivates the reader by its. naivete. He is a sincere Moslem, sprung from a familv inheriting all the good traditions of the Turk, and bent on preserving ancient ways, but he sees how much there is of good as well as evD in Western civilisation.