british traveller in the balkans

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Maney Publishing

The British Traveller in the Balkans: The Abuses of Ottoman Administration in the SlavonicProvincesAuthor(s): Barbara JelavichSource: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 33, No. 81 (Jun., 1955), pp. 396-413Published by: Maney Publishing on behalf of Modern Humanities Research Association andUniversity College London, School of Slavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4204663

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The British Traveller in the

Balkans: the Abuses

of Ottoman Administration in the

Slavonic ProvincesBARBARA JELAVICH

Among the most interesting of the relatively few sources for the studyof the social history of the peoples of the Balkan peninsula are thenumerous works of British travellers who journeyed into the region insearch of pleasure or instruction.1 As works of literature only a few,such as Kinglake's Eothen, excel, but all contribute in some way topresent a picture of life under Ottoman rule. However, travel booksas a whole, and those on the Near East in particular, must be usedwarily as raw material for the writing of history. The British travellerof the 19th century, to whose works this study will be confined, was,in general, not content to be the passive recorder of the events whichpassed before him. Writing in a century when strong prejudice andcontroversial opinion dominated the political scene, he usually chosethe cause which he intended to champion before he entered upon histravels. For instance, in the middle of the century the defence of theBalkan area against Russian imperialism was the major theme;thereafter the plight of the subject nationalities tended to engage thewriter's sympathies. Throughout the century even the Moslem rulersfound their advocates, among whom David Urquhart was probablythe most influential.

Moreover, the British traveller was perhaps not the best person toform a cool judgment on conditions under Moslem rule. He left aflourishing and expanding country, the leading nation of the day, toenter a world where change since the Middle Ages had usually beenfor the worse. The impression of stagnation and decay, the apparentblind refusal to better conditions, struck him all the more forcefully.In the Ottoman Empire he met precisely the political conditionswhich he had learned to abhor: irresponsible, despotic government,economic anarchy and religious intolerance. The physical appear?ance of the country was also all the more wretched by comparison.Even the seasoned traveller was often dismayed by the dirtiness andthe dilapidation of the primitive accommodation available. Travel

1 For a bibliography of travel books on the Near East see F. W. Hasluck, ChristianityndIslamunder heSultans,Oxford, 1929, I, xxi-lxiv, and, Shirley Howard Weber, Voyages ndTravels n theNearEast madeduring heXIX Century,Princeton, 1952.


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THE BRITISH TRAVELLER IN THE BALKANS 397through a country with few roads worthy of the name and nodeveloped waterways entailed real hardship. The linguistic and cul?tural barriers which separated the traveller from the inhabitants ofthe countries which he visited prevented him from acquiring a deeperunderstanding of the events which he observed. Therefore, when inthe following pages a picture of apparently unrelieved gloom ispainted, it must be remembered that it is based on the observationsof representatives of the most advanced of Western nations in themost backward European area. The conditions described do notthereby lose their validity, but the view is through Western glasses.

Despite such deficiencies, these books may be read with profit. Onone question in particular, that of the principal failings of the Otto?man government in its dealings with the subject areas and the chiefcriticisms directed by the Balkan peoples against their rulers, thevarious accounts show remarkable agreement and present extensiveinformation. From these it is possible to gain some idea of the actualworking of the Ottoman administrative system and its relations withthose under its control, as seen from a West European point of view.The opinions expressed by the authors and the stories which theytold had more than a literary significance. The entanglement ofGreat Britain in the diplomatic struggles in the Near East and theclose interest of the public in the development of events in the areaassured the writer of an influential, politically-minded audience. Theview of Ottoman life, particularly of the position of the Christian in aMoslem state, given in these books influenced British opinion andultimately the actions of the government. In the following pages anattempt will be made to summarise the general impressions con?veyed by the writings of the travellers on that aspect of life in theOttoman empire which was of greatest interest to the contemporaryreader. Only the Christian, Slavonic-speaking lands and Albania willbe considered; no attempt will be made to include a description ofconditions in the Greek or Rumanian districts.

The chief abuses of Ottoman rule can most readily be discussedunder three general headings: first and foremost, the inferior statusassigned to the Christian population; second, the Turkish adminis?trative system and its methods of action; and third, the economicdevelopment of the subject lands. It must be remembered that by the19th century the Ottoman empire was in a state of decay. Althoughthe administration of the outlying provinces inhabited by non-Moslem peoples showed the most unfavourable side of the regime,virtually similar conditions of maladministration and corruptionexisted in the Moslem and Turkish national sections. In fact, it wasonly in the first category, that of subordinate personal position, thatthe Christian was in a situation entirely different from, and decidedly


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398 THE SLAVONIC REVIEWinferior to, that of his Moslem fellow-countrymen.2 Certainly, it wasthis grievance which was most deeply felt.

Since the basis of the Ottoman Empire was religious, not national,no particular prejudice barred an individual from advancement nomatter what his race or previous social station, if he were a Moslem.Thus the Slavonic Christian, could, by abandoning his religion, riseto whatever position his abilities entitled him and share in the privi?leges of the ruling group. However, on the principle that 'the bendedhead shall not be struck off', he who remained a Christian wasallowed to live and even to prosper in commercial pursuits, but hewas relegated to a distinctly inferior social status. The assurance feltby the Moslem of the vast superiority of his faith to all others con?tinued relatively undiminished from the days of Ottoman supremacydown to the 19th century, despite the appalling decline of Ottomanpower. Therefore, although on a local level the Moslem and Chris?tian peasant lived in physical circumstances of remarkable similarityand suffered proportionately from extortionate taxation and ineptgovernment, the Moslem community held aloof from their Christiancounterpart, whom they regarded as of a lower caste. With timemany of the early outward forms of servitude, such as the custom thata Christian must dismount when riding past a Moslem, had falleninto disuse, but in scattered areas many of these remained in force.3The prohibition to Christians to carry arms, for example, was more ameasure of social prestige than of assuring the maintenance of civilorder. The feeling of the individual Moslem is well illustrated byone account in which the author on meeting a troop of Christianmerchants outside Salonika turned his horse aside that they mightpass.

... for this weakness [I was] reproved by my Turks. 'Ride straight on,'said they, 'as if you saw no one before you; for although it is right andproper to show civility, you don't know our Giaours; both the Greeksand Bulgarians, especially the latter, are well enough to deal with aslong as you keep them in their places; but it is not with them as with theFranks; if you give them a button, they wish to take your whole gar?ment; and he that lowers himself too much to them will assuredly havecause to repent it'.4The hostility felt towards the Christian extended, as might beexpected, to those who came from foreign lands. All accounts testify2Warington W. Smyth, A Tearwith the Turks,or, Sketches f Travelin theEuropean ndAsiaticDominionsof theSultan,London, 1854, pp. 97-8.3 Edmund Spencer, Travels in EuropeanTurkey n 1850, throughBosnia, Servia,Bulgaria,Macedonia,Thrace,Albania,andEpirus,etc.,London, 1851, I, 244-5.Smyth, pp. 209-10. For the position of the Christian in relation to the Moslem see alsoG. F. Abbott, The Tale of a Tourin Macedonia,London, 1903, pp. 198-201, and James

Baker, Turkeyn Europe,London, 1877, pp. 70-1.


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THE BRITISH TRAVELLER IN THE BALKANS 399to the unwillingness of the Moslem to learn foreign languages andhis consequent unfortunate dependence on Christian interpreters.5The stoning of travellers in the streets of Constantinople and in thetowns of the provinces was a not infrequent occurrence.6It is interesting to note that in the 19th century there appear tohave been no concerted attempts to bring about conversions to Islam.Except for a relatively few instances connected with the kidnappingof Christian girls, acts obviously not carried out from an excess ofreligious zeal,7 the only Christians who abandoned their faith did sowith the hope of bettering their position in the world and not becauseof outside pressure. This situation was in marked contrast to thatwhich existed between the various Christian sects who throughout thecentury engaged in the most bitter and violent factional warfare. AsThornton wrote, the Moslem believes 'he performs an act of charityin proposing his faith to the acceptance of the uninitiated; but hisconfidence in it is too firm for any vanity to be gratified by multi?plying its adherents'.8

Excluded from participation in the functions of the ruling body,the Christians within the empire formed a compact political body oftheir own. The overwhelming majority of the Slavonic Christianinhabitants under Ottoman rule belonged to the Orthodox church.In the village the local church organisation was the centre of thecommunity. It supervised whatever educational facilities existed,handled certain legal questions and looked after the welfare of thoseunder its jurisdiction. In this sphere the position of the individualChristian was dependent on the level of church administration in hisown district, which was, generally speaking, often quite as bad as theMoslem civil government.The splitting of society into these two major factions, the dominantMoslem minority and the subject Christian majority, meant that eachvillage or rural area was divided within itself. Considering the closeproximity in which they lived, Christian and Moslem associatedlittle. Moreover, the Christian from experience and tradition hadassigned to the Moslem characteristics which precluded friendship.He expected to meet tyranny, brutality and prejudice. Typical arethe words of a guide who explained why he must wear tattered andworn clothing when leaving free Serbia for the Ottoman lands.

6 C. B. Elliott, Travels n the ThreeGreatEmpiresof Austria,Russia and Turkey,London,1838,1,454-5; George Keppel, Narrative f aJourneyacrossheBalcan, London, 1831,1, 345,and R. Walsh, Narrative f a Journeyrom ConstantinopleoEngland,London, 1828, pp. 151-2.6 Eyre Evans Crowe, TheGreek ndtheTurk,or,PowersandProspectsn theLevant,London,1853, pp. 183-4, anc*Edward Lear, Journals of a Landscape ainter n Albania,Illyria, etc.tLondon, 1851, p. 67.7Abbott, pp. 171-2, and, G. Arbuthnot, Herzegovina,or, OmerPacha and the ChristianRebels,London, 1862, pp. 212-13.* Thomas Thornton, ThePresentStateof Turkey,London, 1809, II, 150-1.


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THE BRITISH TRAVELLER IN THE BALKANS 4OIThe conviction held by both Christian and Moslem of the duality

of their respective religious and cultural worlds was not measurablyaffected by the numerous reforms initiated in the empire underforeign pressure. The feeling of the Christian that he was a second-class citizen in a basically alien state-structure was the principalgrievance harboured by the Christian rayah. The incompetence, cor?ruptness and barbarity of many aspects of Ottoman rule led to localrevolts and crystallised opinion against the Porte, but these samemethods were often carried over into the administration of the suc?cession states without causing the overthrow of the government. Thefailure of the Ottoman Empire in any way to secure the loyalty orengage the sympathies of the mass of its subjects on the Balkanpeninsula assured the loss of control of the area, once Ottoman powerwas broken and foreign support was withdrawn.

Although the secondary position of the Christian in the Ottomanempire was reflected in the treatment he received under the adminis?trative system of the country, the principal abuses here affected theMoslem also, although to a lesser degree. By the beginning of the19th century provincial government in the Balkan peninsula hadfollowed in the path of the central government and had degeneratedinto a condition of corruption and chaos.13 All important offices weresold, generally once a year in Constantinople. Since tenure of officewas usually short, each official tried to extort as much as possible andas quickly as possible from those under his control. The main purposeof office-holding had thus become not public service, but the accumu?lation of enough wealth to (1) repay the original sum expended toacquire the position, (2) to put money aside to maintain the officialin his old age or when he fell into disfavour, and (3) to enable him tolive in a fitting style while in office. In addition, sums usually had tobe transmitted to Constantinople to ensure influence there.The precarious situation in which each official found himself inrelation to the central government greatly hampered his conduct ofbusiness. He could be deposed and his possessions confiscated at will.Since the improvement of roads and waterways, the maintenance ofa fair judicial system, the establishment of a trustworthy police andthe honest administration of a prosperous and happy province couldin no way advance the position of a local governor in the eyes of thePorte, he naturally concentrated his energies on the activities whichcould. He engaged in petty quarrels and skirmishes with others of hiskind and was forced to involve himself in constant intrigues to pro-

13For a description of the administrative system see Abbott, pp. 209-10; Arbuthnot,pp. 37-8, 73-4; Henry C. Barkley, Between heDanube and theBlack Sea, or, Five Tears nBulgaria, London, 1876, pp. 94-5; G. Muir Mackenzie and A. P. Irby, Travels in theSlavonicProvincesof Turkey-in-Europe,ondon, 1866, pp. 255-9; Spencer, II, 384-6, andThornton, I, 153-67.


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402 THE SLAVONIC REVIEWtect his own position. He knew that his value to the government wasmeasured almost solely in terms of the taxes which the area under hisjurisdiction yielded, and their collection became one of his chief pre?occupations. Here the Christian, in his relatively vulnerable position,suffered proportionately. The methods of tax collection togetherwith the failure of the police and judicial system to function fairlywere the chief complaints of the Christian against the Ottomanadministrative system.

The question of the taxation of the non-Moslem subjects of theOttoman empire remained throughout the century a constant sourceof irritation and received a great deal of attention from the agents ofthe great powers and the European press. Unfortunately, it isdifficult to obtain an accurate general picture of the tax structurefrom the books of the travellers. Conditions differed throughout thecountry, and every tax collector used his own methods. Naturally theBalkan Christian, like every other tax-payer, considered himself ill-used, but, certainly, he was often able to conceal his assets successfully.Tax evasion carried no moral stigma in the Ottoman empire. Thegeneral consensus of opinion among the writers whose works we areconsidering was that the taxes in themselves were not particularlyharsh or unjust when compared with those in other states, but themethods of collection were ruinous to the government and the tax?payer alike.14 The Balkan Christian paid three principal taxes: atithe on his produce, a property tax on his personal possessions andthe products of home industry, and the haratch, which was levied onall male Christians in place of the military service required of theMoslem. The amounts owed under each category varied sharplyfrom year to year and from district to district. In addition, theChristian was subject to numerous other minor payments and tospecial contributions in time of war or in other unusual circumstances.The obligation to render service on roads and public works and toprovide horses and teams when called upon to do so were particularlydisliked. Heavy as the total burden of these contributions were, theywould not have been unbearable had they been collected under aneven moderately efficient system. Here as in other fields of localgovernment confusion ruled. If the principal aim of the Ottomangovernment in the provinces was to assure the prompt and full pay-

14On taxation see Abbott, pp. 146-8, 232-7; Baker, pp. 433-52, 465; Barkley, pp. 280-282; M. Valentine Chirol, 'Twixt Greekand Turk, or, Jottings duringa JourneythroughThessaly,Macedonia, ndEpirus, n theAutumn f 1880,Edinburgh and London, 1881, pp. 53-54; Keppel, I, 273-7; William Martin Leake, Travels nNorthernGreece,London, 1835, III,251-2; Mackenzie and Irby, pp. 20-1, 666-8; Robert Jasper More, Underthe Balkans.Notesof a Visitto theDistrictof Philippopolisn 1876,London, 1877, p. 125; S. G. B. St Clairand Charles A. Brophy, A Residencen Bulgaria, London, 1869, pp. 174-85; Spencer, I,248-53; Thornton, II, 13-32, and, Henry Fanshawe Tozer, Researchesn theHighlandsofTurkey,London, 1869, I, 162-3.


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404 THE SLAVONIC REVIEWAgainst these practices the tax-payer had little protection. The policeand the central administration stood with the tax-farmer in theattempt to collect the maximum. In certain industries the burden oftaxation under these methods was so heavy that production wascrippled. Abbott describes a meeting with a former vineyard-owner,who 'with tears in his eyes' said that 'after having been despoiledthree times by the brigands and thirty times by the tax-collectors, hewas at last obliged to give up his vines entirely and reside in the town,relying on his skill in fur-coat making for subsistence'.17The natural consequence of the activities of the tax-collector andthe local official were thus the impoverishment of potentially wealthyareas and the subsequent loss to the government of possible sources ofrevenue. Since higher production on the farm or in the workshopmeant only an increase in taxation, the individual was discouragedfrom improving his lands or bettering his conditions of life. In such anatmosphere neither Christian nor Moslem could prosper, but theChristian always suffered the more. The Moslem was in a betterposition to protect his interests and to fight against obvious extortion.The Christian was forced to fall back upon the only methods hecould use; he avoided payment by every means possible. The agentsof the tax-farmers were bribed and government regulations wereresisted with zeal. These activities were at least partly successful, andagain the Ottoman government lost through inept administration.

Despite the fact that numerous accounts testify to the occurrenceof atrocities in connection with the collection of taxes, it is difficultto judge the extent to which force and violence characterised the nor?mal routine. The published accounts from ?ll sources emphasiseextreme cases. The traveller and the diplomatic agent heard whathad shocked the local population, not necessarily what had occurredunder ordinary circumstances. The following account is among themore horrifying. For the peasant who did not agree to pay the sumasked by the tax-collector,

. . . there are other paraphernalia of torture worthy of the vaults of theInquisition. A village will occasionally band together to defend them?selves from these extortioners. Thereupon the tithe-farmer applies to thecivil power, protesting that if he does not get the full amount from thevillage, he will be unable in his turn to pay the Government. The Zap-tiehs, the factotums of the Turkish officials, are immediately quarteredon the villagers, and live on them, insult their wives and ill-treat theirchildren. With the aid of these gentry all kinds of personal tortures areapplied to the recalcitrant. In the heat of summer men are strippednaked and tied to a tree smeared over with honey or other sweet-stuff,and left to the tender mercies of the insect world. For winter extortion

17Abbott, pp. 146-7.


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THE BRITISH TRAVELLER IN THE BALKANS 405it is found convenient to bind people to stakes and leave them bare?footed to be frost-bitten; or at other times they are shoved into a pigstyand cold water poured on them. A favourite plan is to drive a party ofrayahs up a tree or into a chamber and then smoke them with greenwood. Instances are recorded of Bosniac peasants being left buried upto their heads in earth, and left to repent at leisure.18Against such actions as these the Christian could turn for protec?tion to no official body. Both the police and the courts were organisedunder systems detrimental to the interests of the non-Moslem groupsand suffered from the faults of inefficiency and corruption common tothe entire administrative system of the Balkan peninsula. The local

police were particularly badly managed.19 The individual policeman,the zctptiek, was underpaid and like the soldier often found his paymonths in arrears.20 Since he suffered from the practices of thosehigher up, he naturally tried to transfer the burden to those belowhim. From a wage which has been estimated at between ?1 7^. and?2 15s. a month, he was expected to maintain himself and his familyand to provide for a horse. One legitimate means existed to sup?plement this sum. Because of the lawless state of the countryside,travellers and merchants usually had to be accompanied by anarmed guard. The payment for this service, particularly if the em?ployer was a foreigner, was often liberal. The more usual means,however, of supplementing a meagre income was by squeezing thelocal population or by collusion with brigands. Many methods couldbe employed to gain extra goods or equipment, particularly in aChristian village. If a zaptieh wanted a horse, he could quarter him?self at the house of the owner of a desirable animal, who could then bediscovered 'to be in league with the brigands'. Usually the horsechanged hands quickly. It is not to be wondered that the policeusually had the best animals.21 Housing could be obtained by similarmethods. Moslem villages were usually avoided since the inhabitantscould make their complaints heard. In a Christian area the policecould select the most comfortable rooms available and demand thattheir unwilling hosts should provide the best their stores of food couldafford. One traveller describes the plight of a village priest in Bulgariawho received many such visits.

When they [the police] take their departure they usually carry off anyadditional live stock they take a fancy to for future use, occasionally*borrow' cookery utensils and clothing into the bargain, but never18ArthurJ. Evans, ThroughBosniaandtheHerzegovinanFoot,London, 1876, pp. 257-8.See also Abbott, 235-6.19On the police see ibid., pp. 208-9; Arbuthnot, pp. 82-3; Baker, pp. 257-8; andBarkley, p. 14.20Abbott tells of one official who regularly delayed paying the police under his jurisdic?tion so that he could lend the money at interest (cf. pp. 208-9). 21Barkley, p. 14.


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406 THE SLAVONIC REVIEWdream of paying either for what they have eaten or taken. Out ofeighty of the priest's geese only fifteen then remained, the rest havingbeen thus requisitioned, besides which he has been relieved of much ofhis more portable property, including his horse, for which he gave 1,000piastres.22Certainly, the zaptieh could not be regarded as a custodian of locallaw and order. Moreover, inefficiency and irresponsibility character?ised his actions. The following story is an illustration:

On one occasion a zaptieh was sent to a distant village to arrest awrong-doer. Before he arrived at his journey's end, however, he hadforgotten the offender's family name, but he remembered his Christianname. When he reached the village the zaptieh arrested every man inthe place whose first name corresponded with that of the man who was4wanted', and taking the whole lot to the konak, said, 'See, I havebrought you all; you can now select out of them the man you want'.23Perhaps the best example of the failure of the local administration

and the police to fulfil their functions properly was the prevalence ofbrigandage throughout the Balkan peninsula but particularly inMacedonia.24 As has been mentioned, travelling was necessarily donein the company of armed guards; the merchant and the traveller hadto fear for both life and property. The vast stretches of unoccupiedterritory which so impressed the traveller were partly occasioned bythe state of internal anarchy. As one writer testifies:

The villages are at least ten miles apart. . . . Nowhere in Turkey areisolated houses to be found; for the good reason that, if there were, theowners would have their throats cut within a week.25The robber bands were made up not only of those who could be

expected to follow such a profession in any country, but also of thosewho had been driven from their homes by war, famine or politicaloppression. The local population was usually extremely sympatheticto the outlaws, because the individual felt that he too could always'go to the hills' if his life became unbearable. Brigandage with apatriotic cast was difficult to stamp out, and the Moslem authoritieswere powerless to deal with the situation. Often they too co-operatedwith the bands and received a share of the plunder. Despite itspopularity brigandage harmed ruler and ruled alike. Highways weremade unsafe and commerce consequently hindered. Cruelty, blood-22More, p. 123. 23Ibid., pp. 80-1. See also pp. 123-4.24On brigandage see Abbott, pp. 95, 113-14, 145-6, 158-9, 260; Baker, pp. 129, 237-8;Barkley, pp. 13-14, 157-8, 244-59; Lord Broughton, Travels n Albaniaand otherProvinces fTurkey n i8og and 1810, London, 1858, I, 140-3; Chirol, pp. 80-3, 87-9; E. F. Knight,Albania,A Narrativeof RecentTravel,London, 1880, p. 271; More, pp. 137-8; St Clair andBrophy, pp. 115-31; Thornton, II, 66; D. Urquhart, TheSpirit of theEast, London, 1838,II, 152-69, 197-8; and Mary Adelaide Walker, ThroughMacedonia o the AlbanianLakes,London, 1864, pp. 246-8. 25Barkley, p. 19.


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THE BRITISH TRAVELLER IN THE BALKANS 407shed and injustice marked the path of the thief, even if he wereoriginally a political refugee. He injured the innocent and the guiltyequally and contributed to the unrest of Balkan life.

The courts, like the police and the offices of the local administra?tion, were Moslem-dominated and offered little protection to those ofother faiths.26 For instance, Christian evidence was admissible incriminal, but not in civil cases, and even in the former the word of aMoslem outweighed that of many Christians. The penalty for perjury,light for a Moslem, was extreme for a Christian. Under such circum?stances it was profitable for a Moslem to bring charges against aprosperous Christian, even if his grounds were flimsy. The actioncost him nothing, because, if he lost it, the Christian winner paid thecourt costs. When the courts dealt with the case of a Moslem against aMoslem, they were usually competent. The results of the action of aChristian against a Moslem are shown in the following account:

A Bulgarian, one of the most prosperous men in Ochrida, had a sumof money borrowed from him by a Turk who did not repay it, so atlength he made interest with the mudir to get his debtor put into prison.At the end of a few days, however, he let him out, only fixing a futuretime for payment; but this indulgence was vain; for the son of the Turkresolved that his father's imprisonment by a rayah should be bloodilyavenged. He watched a moment when the merchant was taking hissiesta under a tree, and then crept up to him and discharged a gun intohis body. A few weeks later the merchant died of the wound; yet themurderer remained at large.27The failure of the local administration to ensure law and order in

the provinces and to control corruption was extremely dangerous tothe safety of the Ottoman Empire. The Christian inhabitant, ex?cluded by his religion from the ruling circles and unable to obtainprotection from his legal government, turned to those who offeredhim assistance. Throughout the century the great powers and theOrthodox, Roman Catholic and even Protestant churches competedin bestowing their patronage on the Balkan nationalities. Thepresence of foreign consuls who interested themselves in local affairsand who investigated alleged atrocities gave the Christian the assur?ance that he had powerful support.28In a sense the corruption of the Ottoman system was a doubletragedy for the Balkan peoples. Not only did they suffer the burden ofthe abuses, but they received an education in civil responsibility thatwould have been better avoided. Most of the travel accounts testifyto the prevalence of graft in Christian civil and ecclesiastical bodies.28On the operation of the courts see Arbuthnot, pp. 211-12; Evans, BosniaandHerze?govina,p. 255; Keppel, I, 267, and Thornton, I, 188-213.27Mackenzie and Irby, pp. 75-6. See also Walker, pp. 208-11.28

Baker, p. 514, and St Clair and Brophy, pp. 252-93.


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408 THE SLAVONIC REVIEWSuch practices had with time been accepted as the normal attributesof public life. The habit of resistance against government decreesacquired by the inhabitants and the tendency to arbitrary anddespotic action by those in power were also lessons learned fromOttoman rule.

The physical appearance of the Balkan towns, farms and country?side naturally impressed the traveller far more than the details helearned of the relationship between Moslem and Christian or betweenthe officials and those under them. The beauty of the Balkan land?scape, particularly the mountains and forests, the very remotenessand inaccessibility of the country, had great attractions for the artistand the writer. Viewed from a distance the towns assumed a dream?like and romantic appearance:

... a Turkish city has a charm of its own whatever its situation, andlooked at from what point you please. True to the pastoral instincts ofhis ancestors, the Turk ever seeks to absorb the prosaic town into thepoetry of nature; he multiplies spires to atone for roofs, and wherever hebuilds a house he plants a tree.29From closer at hand, however, the picture of human habitationbecame less pleasing. The average Balkan village or farm, especiallyin the interior, was often squalid and wretched. Even the largertowns had an air of stagnation and decay. The popular saying 'wherethe sultan's horse hath trod, the earth yieldeth nought save thornsand thistles' was used by many writers to characterise their reactionto what they saw.30 The lack of any great public works or buildingswas remarked upon; the impressive ruins visited dated from mediaevalor ancient times.31 Almost alone the mosque and the minaret markedthe Ottoman conquest. One writer thus dramatically described theconditions he met:

Where are the monuments of the power and the energy of the mightypeople who laid the Christian empire of the East in the dust? Where arethe proofs that they have for four centuries held dominion over one ofthe most beautiful and fertile countries in our hemisphere? Where ?the undrained marsh, the sand-choked river, the grass-grown marketplace, the deserted field, the crumbling fortress, the broken arch; thesere-echo, Where 32Repair on existing structures, when done, was often slipshod and

temporary. Another traveller explains:The Turk, next to erecting a new building, hates nothing more than

repairing an old one. Laissez-faire is his motto, and he acts up to it withshocking consistency. Everything?ruination included?is from Allah,29Mackenzie and Irby, p. 5. 30Spencer, II, 102-31

Abbott, p. 225, and Evans, IllyrianLetters,p. 125. 32Spencer, I, 2.


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THE BRITISH TRAVELLER IN THE BALKANS 409and who dares oppose Allah's will, or who can stay His hand? So, whena building falls into decay, it is first piously suffered to go from bad toworse, and then it is abandoned. The materials are utilised for otherpurposes, as they are wanted. In like manner, when the spade acciden?tally turns up some ancient statue or inscription, it is allowed to remainexposed for some time, and then, if too big to be used en bloc, it is brokenin pieces and used in lieu of bricks.33The problem of transportation was not an easy one for the visitorto solve. For those who enjoyed riding on horseback, Balkan travelwas ideal. Although by the end of the century Constantinople was

joined with Western Europe by a major railway line, travel awayfrom this route remained extremely primitive. River transport wasalso impracticable. Austrian steamers navigated the Danube, but thegreat waterways of the Vardar and the Maritza remained unopened.34The horse and the mule were throughout the period the backbone oftransportation and communication.35 Travel by such means was notalways pleasant, as is witnessed by the following report:

The want of any direct communication between the various provincesby means of roads, is the first difficulty with which the traveller has tocontend; a horsepath is the only substitute, everywhere in the mountainsexecrable. It is true, we occasionally meet with something resembling apaved road, about two feet in width, of great antiquity, no doubtoriginally constructed for the use of the pack-horse, that being the onlymeans of transporting merchandise; consequently, the traveller mustdepend for his conveyance on his skill as an equestrian, and truly a rideacross the mountains of European Turkey may be deemed a neck-breaking exploit. At one time, we are compelled to follow the windingsof the bed of a dried-up torrent, at another to ascend the dizzy height ofa yawning abyss, or dive into the depths of a gloomy defile, where a falsestep would be sufficient to plunge horse and rider into eternity.36Even over the plains the roads were in poor condition and in win?ter they became almost impassable. Walsh notes that in Thrace,

The road which leads through these plains is nothing more than abeaten path over the grass, every one pursuing that which he prefers. Insummer it is of a limited breadth, but in winter, when the rain sets in,the usual path is impassable, and every traveller seeks a new one besidethe former; so that, in some places the road is three or four hundredyards wide.3733Abbott, p. 74. 34Spencer, II, 407, and Tozer, I, p. 382.35A rough cart, the araba,was also widely used by the local population for the trans?port of persons and goods, particularly on the plains. Its use, however, was not favouredby the traveller. Barkley, pp. 9-10; A. W. Kinglake, Eothen,London, 1948, pp. 19-21,and Walsh, p. 2.36Spencer, I, 5-6. On the condition of the roads see also Baker, pp. 332-3; JamesCreagh, Over theBordersof Christendomnd Eslamiah,London, 1876, II, 148-51; and StClair and Brophy, pp. 24-30. 37Walsh, pp. 124-5.


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410 THE SLAVONIC REVIEWThe responsibility for the upkeep of the roads and waterways fellon the local officials. The lack of interest shown by the Porte and the

corrupt practices of the provincial officials resulted in the conditionsdescribed above, which were typical throughout the Balkans. Someefforts were occasionally made to improve the lot of the traveller.One account described the attempt of the government to build a'Route Imperiale' from Salonika to Monastir. The day was set for theinauguration, impressive ceremonies were held, but the road nevermaterialised.38 Too often the inconveniences which beset the touristoffered a profit to someone. Keppel told of a bridge over the Maritzawhich was carried away by the breaking of the ice. A ferry was putinto operation which yielded a small sum to the governor, and,despite the inconvenience of the new arrangement to those who usedit, the bridge was never replaced.39The lack of proper means of transport and communication had afar-reaching effect on all spheres of Balkan life. Completely cut offfrom all outside sources of knowledge, the peasant continued to usethe agricultural methods of his ancestors.40 With no means of market?ing his surplus produce and fearing the tax-collector and the greedyofficial, he farmed his land to support his family and to pay the duesdemanded by church and state. His house and implements remainedcrude and his living conditions low. No incentive existed to spur himto greater efforts and larger production. When Barkley asked a Bul?garian farmer why he did not improve the breed of his horses, hegave the common answer: 'What would be the use of it? If they weregood for anything the Government would take them for the troops,or the Government officials and the police would walk off with themfor their private use'.41 The same feeling existed towards the im?provement of house and farm. The peasant feared that if he appearedprosperous he would be taxed so heavily that he would be reducedto a worse condition than before.

One of the most obvious results of the imposition of heavy fiscalburdens on agriculture was the under-population and under-develop-ment of the entire region. Land was plentiful throughout EuropeanTurkey, except, of course, in the highlands. The existence of vasttracts of excellent but totally neglected acreage astonished the Euro?pean visitor, who was accustomed to seeing the small holdings ofWestern Europe. When visiting Albania, one writer was struck by,

the almost totally uninhabited appearance of the country. Scarcely avillage is to be seen within three or four hours of each other; even the38Tozer, I, 150. 39Keppel, I, 148.40More, p. 21; Baker, pp. 453-^85,and St Clair and Brophy, pp. 151-8.41Barkely, p. 31. See also Mackenzie and Irby, p. 391. Walsh (pp. 123-4) gives adescription of the unhappy fate which overtook a Moslem who had improved his landsand prospered to such an extent that he aroused the cupidity of his superiors.


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THE BRITISH TRAVELLER IN THE BALKANS 41 Ikhans are many hours apart; and more than half the land?I should sayquite three-quarters?lies utterly waste and uncultivated.42The Slav, for whom agriculture remained the chief occupation,

played but a minor role in the commercial life of the empire, whichwas dominated by the Greek, the Jew and the Armenian. What tradeand industry did exist in the Slavonic provinces suffered severelyfrom the corruption and inefficiency of the government. The lack ofadequate means of transportation and communication resulted in theisolation of the population. No means existed by which the local far?mer could bring his surplus produce to a larger market area. Theexistence of brigandage on a wide scale and the failure of the policeto assure protection to Christian property made difficult the accumu?lation of capital for large enterprises. Inequality before the law andthe methods of tax-collection also contributed to this end.

The industrial development of the Balkan lands, even on a smallscale, was largely stifled, not only because of the handicaps previouslydescribed, but also because of the Ottoman customs regulationswhich favoured the foreigner. The European trader paid only uponentering the country, but the local merchant was taxed in everyprovince through which he passed.43 The entrance of cheap Austrian,British and German wares, particularly cloth and crockery, in theBalkan market caused considerable distress among local craftsmen.44Moreover, the great mineral wealth of the region was not thoroughlyrealised in the 19th century. The exploitation of even obvious sourcesof wealth, such as the extensive forests, could not be carried throughbecause of the uncertain status of even the foreign promoter whendealing with the Ottoman government.45

Although the preceding account has dealt exclusively with theabuses of Ottoman administration in the Balkans and has thereforetended to emphasise the darker side of the picture of Balkan life, itmust not be assumed that all travellers were so pessimistic or thatthey blamed the Porte alone for the bad conditions which theyobserved.46 Despite the fact that the decided majority considered theChristian as the innocent victim of Moslem tyranny and cruelty,some writers either favoured the continuance of Turkish rule or con?demned both sides in equal measure. The apathy and the willingnessto accept seemingly intolerable conditions on the part of both Moslemand Christian was frequently commented upon. And

42Viscountess Strangford, The EasternShoresof the Adriatic in 1863, London, 1864,pp. 10-11. See also Adolphus Slade, Turkey,Greecend Malta, London, 1837, I>342*43Keppel, I, 259-60.44Abbott, p. 220.46Arbuthnot, pp. 38-9, and Evans, IllyrianLetters,pp. 125-6.48For a generally favourable view of the Moslem see Arbuthnot, Baker, Smyth, StClair and Brophy and Urquhart.


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412 THE SLAVONIC REVIEWIf you express your surprise at this to a Slavon Rayah, or a Greek

Rayah, however wealthy and intelligent, he will tell you that a finehouse and a costly exterior excites the cupidity of his greedy tyrant, theTurk; if to the Osmanli grandee, after many a 'Mashalla ' he will reply:'Why spend our money in improvements and public buildings to enrichan unbelieving Giaour?' Both are superstitious, both are fatalists?Christian and Moslem?firmly believing that the day is not far distant,when the one must be transferred to the rule of a Christian Sovereign,and the other retreat into Asia.47The existence of a contradictory opinion, however, does not lessenthe general impression given by the works of the British traveller in

the Balkans. It is that which is to be gained from a reading of thequotations previously given. Even the works of David Urquhart, per?haps the strongest advocate of the continuance of Turkish rule, bearout this view. The description of his capture by bandits in Greece andthe report he gives of the activities of a Moslem provincial governorare not indicative of the ability of the Ottoman government to ad?minister subject peoples. The works of Baker, St Clair and Brophy,who are also highly critical of the Christian population, presentsimilar anecdotes which reflect upon the capacity of the Moslemrulers.

In general, the traveller followed the pattern of the newspapercorrespondent. He was principally interested in and faithfullyreported what struck him most forcibly in his travels. In the Balkansit was the wild beauty and grandeur of the landscape and the recur?rent atrocities in the relations of the people dwelling therein. Whetheror not his reports present a fair picture cannot be determined. Theaccounts against which his statements could be verified, that is, thewritings of diplomatic agents and foreign correspondents, are all inthe same vein. The authors are not interested primarily in the normalflow of human life, but in what is 'news'. The novel and the essay,which tell so much about life and thought in other parts of Europe,were for all practical purposes non-existent in the lands under Otto?man rule. The writings of those who lived through the period areoften tainted with the passion of too violent nationalism. All of thesewriters contributed in one way or another to strengthen the popularconception in Western Europe of life under Moslem rule. Thepolitical importance of the travel books is therefore just this: whatthey described was what was generally accepted as true. Theanimosity felt by British public opinion after the Crimean war, whenRussia appeared to be less of a threat to Constantinople, was built upand solidified by such evidence. The best illustration of the impor?tance of such writings on opinion and policy is offered by the preface'

Spencer, I, 141.


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THE BRITISH TRAVELLER IN THE BALKANS 413written by W. E. Gladstone to the 1877 edition of G. Muir Macken?zie's and A. P. Irby's Travels in the Slavonic Provinces of Turkey-in-Europe. Here Gladstone first noted the new opportunities open to thestatesman to learn more about the question which had previouslybeen neglected, that of 'how far the Porte fulfilled or defeated themain purpose for which every government exists?namely, the wel?fare of those beneath its rule'. After praising the earlier edition of thebook, which described life under Ottoman rule in the comparativelytranquil 1860's, Gladstone concluded that even in times of peace thelife of the Christian under Ottoman rule,

. . . was a life never knowing real security or peace, except when theGovernment and its agents were happily out of view. A life which neverhad any of the benefits of law, save when the agents of the law wereabsent. A life in which no object, that was valued, could be exposed. Alife which left to the Christian nothing, except what his Mohammedanmaster did not chance to want. A life in which wife and daughter, theappointed sources of the sweetest consolation, were the standingoccasions of the sharpest anxiety. A life debased by cringing, poisoned byfear, destructive of manhood, shorn of the freedom which is the indis?pensable condition of all nobleness in man, and shorn too of every hope,except such as might lie in an escape from it to some foreign land; or inthe dream of a future redemption, which we may think to be nowprobably at hand, when acute suffering has been substituted for dullchronic pain, and when a people, too long patient, seems to be at lengthdetermined, in vindicating its own rights, to vindicate the insulted lawsof the Most High.4848Mackenzie and Irby, Travelsn theSlavonicProvincesf Turkey-in-Europe,ondon, 1877,pp. xiii-xiv.

british traveller in the balkans

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