New Britain Herald Newspaper, June 23, 1927, Page 10

\ Throne captured from Persia by a Turkish Sultan in the early sixteenth century. It is covered with the finest enamel work and lavishly inlaid with pearls S R A s o WS @R e e HE veil that has shrouded Turkey’s T 0ld Seraglio for nearly four hun- dred years has at last been drawn aside to reveal the lavish splendor with which a long line of Sultans surrounded themselves and the numerous beauties of their harems. Turkish museum authorities, working under orders from Kemal Pasha, the democratic successor of the long line of Sultans who ruled the Ottoman Empire with blood and iron, have cleaned up the forbidding and mysterious Palace in Stamboul and will soon open its doors as a public museum. The lowest Turk in the land and the sightseeing tourist who cares the price of a good cigar about having an Arabian Night's dream while he is wide awake may soon roam about the very sanctum sanctorums of terrible Turks who, in their day, put to death such audacious or ignorant unfortunates as even ap- proached the outersportals. No one, not even the old Turks who can remember the days before Abdul Hamid II succeeded his brother as Sul- tan in 1876, dreamed that the forbidding turrets and minarets and domes of the 0l1d Seraglio held the priceless treasures that have been found there. Already photographers have been per- mitted to take pictures ‘in the imperial stronghold of the Sultans and some of them, reproduced on this page, graph- ically suggest the breathless beauty of the place. One of the rarest treasures is an elaborate throne captured from the pal- ace of the Shah of Persia in the days when the Turk was anything but “the sick man of Europe” that the World War made him. This royal divan—for it really is that—is elaborately studded with pearls and enamels worth a king’si ransom, and is matched by a footstool quite as beautiful and ornate. Another throne—a detail of which is shown on this page—was the special pride of Sultan Murad IV, who domi- neered the Ottomans in the early eigh- teenth century. This, like the other, is war loot brought to the Old Seraglio from Bagdad. It is a masterpiece of Oriental cabinet making and is ebony in- laid with the finest of snow-white ivory. Still another throne that will soon be on view in the world’s unique museum is supported by four marble columns which have been described as “so beautiful and delicate that you would take them for Phoenician vases from a funeral monument.” From the outermost gateway to the colorful terraced gardens that rise from the shore of the blue Bosphorus to the ponderous bronze doors that let into the harem, the imperial palace of the Sul- tans is a delight to the eye. The im- agination is also moved to picture the inhuman cruelty, the stark tragedy and the sinister intrigue that is known to have been enacted within the battle- ments of this palace that w: fortress In thiz room are exquisite doors glit- also a tering with mother-of-pearl arabesques; it room the walls are faience tiles d to form flowers as delicately lored as a Persian shawl ed beds have curtains f glistening silver thread; s windows that could only joned in the luxury-loving saie floors with all the inbow Sultans must have be- nodern American house- P80 . el Seaay N WOLMES FRow Ewrwe GATEOWAY - Part of the magnificent grounds surrounding the Seraglio which Kemal Pasha has given to the people for a park and playground wife that “the bathroom is the most fm- portant room in the house,” for their bathing places could not have been more beautiful had Aladdin rubbed them out of his magic lamp. One of these is a sunken pool lighted by circles of many colors that fall from a dome of stained glass. Encircling the pool are polished marble columns and a grill that concealed the royal bather even from the eyes of the powerful black men who guarded him at his ablutions. . Deep in the maze of the harem one finds exquisite examples of pure Turkish art—fountains as pleasing to the eye as a Grecian urn, deep rugs and heavy draperies loomed by the expert fingers of artisans whose skill died with them, stained glass windows fit for a cathedral, and golden grill work as amazingly beau- tiful as intricate. These are but a few of the wonders that will soon be open to anyone who cares to visit the historic Old Seraglio to see for himself the almost unbeliev- able luxury with which many Sultans surrounded themselves and their harem beauties for three adventurous centuries. One of the great halls in the imperial palace is called the Treasury, because this is where the crown jewels of the Sultans and their Sultanas will be ar- ranged for ~xhibit. Many of these priceless gems have not been seen by any living person except the men highest in the councils of mod- ern Turkey. The collection includes many tiaras and jeweled robes that will attract gem fanciers from all parts of the world Another of the spacious halls is the Library, which contains many volumes of Oriental manuscripts beyond price, and the Sanctuary—which might be called the holy of holies in the Seraglio—is rich in sacred relics, thought to have been the property of the Prophet Mohammed, founder of the Moslem faith. This even contains a yellowed tooth and a wisp of beard treasured under the impression that they came from the head of the Son of Allah. Not since 1839 has the Palace in Stamboul, as the Old Seraglio is often called, been occupied by a Sultan, al- though Abdul Hamid II, who was forced to get down from the throne in the snow- white palace across the Bosphorus in 1909, used it as a sort of overflow home for his many dependents and for the wives and offspring of former Sultans. On occasion he permitted persons to walk through the terraced gardens out- side the Seraglio, but never were “pro- fane eyes” given a glimpse of the mys- terious wonders of the Treasury, the Library, the Throne Room or the harem In rare instances, Abdul gave certain distinguished friends of his a peep at some of the marvels that his predeces- reveled in, but never did he unlock the great bronze doors that have so long kept the secret of the fair harem ladies, the flower of feminity from Turkey and neighboring countries of the East. In the long-gone days when Murads and Mohammeds and Abduls lived in the Seraglio it was a busy and a fearsome establishment. The turrets and the tow- ers of the palace rose in the midst of a series of courts, the gates to which were barred and bolted and guarded by the pick of the Empire’s strongest men. Copyright, 1921, by nNights Outdone By Old ie'le Sultans' Splendor With Which Turkey’s Former Rulers Surrounded T hemselves and the Veiled Beauties of Their Harem throne of Sul- tan Murad IV, captured by the Turks at Bagdad in the eighteenth It is of ebony and ivory, inset with century. precious stones Then the Sultan talked with steel and wrote his edicts in blood. About the busiest place in his fortress-residence was the chamber of execution where more than a few advisers who seemed to err in their suggestions were violently removed from the councils of the Grand Sinyori and from earthly existence. Turkey was a world power in those times and the fear of the Sultan’s wrath spread to countries far away from the Balkan Pensinula. Foreign ambassadors were made to wait, like book agents, on the Sultan's pleasare and convenience and they couched their diplomatic mes- cages with extreme care and elaborate courtesy. They considered themselves Johnson Features, Inc. Corner of a -reception room in the Old Seraglio or royal harem, whie:h is soon to be thrown open as a public Note the priceless mosaic work which covers almost every inch of the walls lucky if they got to talk with his royal highness through a concealing grille. England’s Queen Elizabeth, seeking the Sultan’s aid to help her stave off the Spanish Armada, sent her ambassador to Stamboul, and to be certain that he got the Sultan’s ear she had him take along a pipe organ as a gift. A man by the name of Dallam made the instrument and went along to set up the organ in the Seraglio if the Sul- tan deigned to accept the thing. He did, and Dallam, closely watched by the harem guards, began the job of unpack- ing and installing the Queen’s diplomatic present. Being a likable sort, he soon won the friendship of the guards and they, against all orders, allowed him to peep through a grilled window at a bevy of the Sultan’s beautiful wives disporting them- selves in a courtyard. Probably he was the first Occidental to cast his delighted eyes on this forbidden spectacle. Later, when he was working on the organ in one of the rooms of the Seraglio, he was mystified to see his Tarkish assistants sud- denly quit the job and dash out of the place, their eyes bulging with fear. In another moment he found himself tearing off in tht same direction, pursued by two gigantic black men who slashed at him with scimitars as keen as a razor. He had been in the wrong place when the Sultan was promenading with some of his favorite ' wives, and he returnad to England a sick man because of his unwitting gamble with death. No less safe than the English organ- maker was anyone who approached too close to the imperial palace with no par- ticular busines. to be in that area. Sultan Mourad IV, for example, de- lighted to take a personal hand in keep- ing his preserve free from intruders, and he used to stand in a tower window for hours at a time to *‘snipe” victims with the cressbow, with which he was a crack shot. He brought down so many of his subjects that his ministers became alarmed and sugzested that he limit each day’s shooting to ten heads. For more than two of the three cen- % 5 Pagre 27 YON HOLMES o s Gass ouay. X N Women thickly veiled like this are seldom seen under the new regime in Turkey turies that the Seraglio was the home of the Sultans it was customary to keep the ruler’s kin who might some day succeed him on the royal Divan in a sort of huge cage called the Kafess. The theory was that the possible Sultans-to-be were thus protected from harm, but the real reason for this incarceration was to remove any temptations they might have to hasten the day of their kingship. One possible Sultan was kept in the Kafess for fifty years, his only compan- ion being deaf mutes. When he was fin- ally released he, too, was so nearly dumb that he couldn’t have held down the Sultanate if he’d had the chance. Another long-confined close relative of the reigning Sultan lost his reason, and a third victim of this curious form of torture, who finally was taken out of the cage to lord it over the Ottoman world, could not adjust himself to the luxury of the Sultanate and begged his advisers to let him go back to the un- comfortable security of the Kafess. Conditions in the harem were not al- ways so rosy either, for the wives ,or concubines who displeased their lord and master were disposed of with neatness and dispatch. Ibrahim, the Mad Sultan, took a sud- den dislike to some 200 of his wives and female slaves and decided to have a new deal in his harem. The tradition is that these defenseless creatures were sewn in sacks and thrown into the Bosphorus. This was the way that the old Sultans carried on in the mysterious and lavishly beautiful Old Seraglio that the Turkish government will soon throw open to anyone who is interested a few cents worth in seeing every nook and corner of an imperial stronghold that has kept its secrets for nearly 400 years. - \