Book

[tjstill (imported)]

I read that an Ethiopian eunuch (one of the last from the turkish harems) Wrote a bibliography. I have never heard of it before he was called Hayrettin Effendi. I wondered if anyone here could shed any light on this?

[JesusA (imported)]

The book was apparently written and published in Turkish. There may be a translation of it (or at least parts of it) into French, as I've seen some quotations of it in French language sources. I can find no evidence of an English translation.

He wrote that he was from the Galla tribe in Ethiopia and that he was kidnapped by an Arab slaver at about 7 or 8 years of age, castrated and sent on a ship toward market. British anti-slavery forces in the Indian Ocean captured the vessel and he was "given" to "protector" in Yemen who sold him to the Ottomans, rather than protecting him as had been promised to the British.

Maybe an Archive member whose French is better than mine can track down more. Better yet, is there a member here competent in Turkish who might track down the original?

[transward (imported)]

Not a linguist but a short search on-line turned up an excerpt in an article about the slave trade http://lists.topica.com/lists/TheBlackL ... tart=16274

yrettin Effendi, The Last Black Eunuch in Turkey Runoko Rashidi

Nov 13, 2004 17:27 PST

Translated from the French and forwarded to the GAP by Sister Zawadi Sagna:

Hayrettin Effendi, the last Black Eunuch of Turkey

By GNAMMANKOU DIEUDONNÉ in

Black Men, August 2000

THE AFRICAN EUNUCHS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

During many centuries, a children's traffic, generally known under the name

"blood tax", has been practiced from countries and areas under Ottoman

domination in Europe, Asia and Africa, towards the palaces of the Ottoman

sultans in Constantinople (Istanbul). Black and white children were victims of

this slavery. The little girls were meant for filling the harems as cohabitants

or to become servants. The boys served in the Ottoman army or the

administration, were used as slavish or domestic labor. Some of them were

employed as pages to the palace or eunuchs in the sultan's harems.

The first Black eunuchs were employed in the Ottoman empire since 1485. The

sultans made them come from Ethiopia and the Lake Chad area. Until the end of

the 15th century, the white eunuchs were the only ones to keep the sultan's

cohabitants in the harems. In 1587, one Black received the tittle of Eunuchs'

Chief. Known under the name Kizlar Agasi, he had the rank of pacha, was the

hallebarders's palace commandant. He ruled numerous high ranking "functionaries"

of the empire and had important religious functions. He was the imperial mosque

keeper and the devout foundations of Mecca and Medina. He remained on good terms

with the sultan and was the most feared of the country. When he retired, he

withdrew to Egypt where he had a golden existence.

Nowadays, still, in Istanbul the Turkish capital, it's possible to visit the

building which sheltered the Black eunuchs sultan's palace apartments. They were

six hundred to live here all together! Africa, their original birth place,

remained present in their imagination. So on certain walls of the bedrooms we

can see African landscapes that some of them have painted.

THE LAST BLACK EUNUCHS

In 1998 the publication of a book in Turkish, Meyyale, by Dr. Hifzi Topuz, bring

some precious lightings on the daily life of the last Black eunuchs of the

Ottoman empire at the 20th century.

Those ones became free since 1918, the year has been claimed the MESUTIET, the

banning of slavery in Turkey.

The 8th chapter of Hifzi Topuz's book is consecrated to harem's eunuchs. The

Turkish author recalled without any kindness about the suffering of those men:

from the wrench from their families and African native areas to the painful

castration operation to which only 10% of the children survived, to their

transfer to Turkey.

In the 60's, we could still, in Istanbul streets meet the last Black eunuchs,

particularly in Bostanji district. Generally, the eunuchs were dumb about their

past. They died with their secrets.

Nevertheless, Hayrettin Effendi, the last eunuch of Resat, the last Ottoman

sultan, decided to tell all the story of his life to a district friend, one year

before dying, in 1976.70 years after his kidnapping in Ethiopia.

Hayrettin was a smart man. Very tall, kind and generous, he lived in a house

with a garden, with a Circassian woman that he loved and respected profoundly.

Hayrettin was a gala from Ethiopia. His story is the one of the Ottoman palace's

Black eunuchs and remained anonymous for centuries. His testimony revealed the

eunuch's suffering. It's the look of a man very lucid on the human nature's

perversity of this time. It's a rousing call to humanity for such atrocities not

to happen no more. A message of hope.

Hayrettin Effendi's testimony, last sultan's last eunuch. From the Turkish book,

MEYYALE, by Hifzi Topuz, Istanbul, Editions Remzi Kitabevi, p.69-72.

(Thanks to Ozan who translated orally this text and all the chapter about the

Black eunuchs and Mrs. Oya Göker who made us know about this work from its

publication in Turkey.)

"I remember my childhood like if it was yesterday. I'm from Habesistan. I'm a

Galla. My name was Gülnata. We were living in a little village. We were very

happy. I was 7 or 8 years. I was playing with some children same age than me on

the village's place. We always had the same game. We were running one after the

others. Then one day, some horsemen came. They didn't look like the men from our

place. Their faces were lighter. They were armed. They caught us.

One of them closed my mouth and I almost suffocated. My eyes went out of their

socket. They took all my friends and I away. I didn't understand their language.

It's after that I've known they were talking Arabic. Arrived in a village, they

put us in a yard. There were other children like us. They talked the same

language than us. They sobbed. We didn't understood why they have kidnapped us.

We shared the same sorrow. We stayed three days without drinking' and Eaton'.

We were afraid. Few days later, we have been castrated (In Massoua, peninsula of

the

Ethiopian coast occupied by the Turkish). During numerous years, I never forget

the pain and the tortures endured. Two weeks after the castration, we began to

get better. They drove us in the ports. There were some boys and girls like us.

We didn't talk both the same language but we shared the same lot. All the boys

were castrated. There were a good relationship between us. Then they embarked us

on a boat. We were delighted to have escaped from the monsters. But where did

they bring us? We thought they gonna throw us in the ocean. We didn't know

anything. We were totally uncertain. Our villages, our brothers, our sisters,

our mothers were far behind. Will it be possible to see them again one day?

Some of us cried all the time. We were afraid to be drowned. We were seeing the

sea for the first time and we were afraid. We were all gathered on the boat. We

looked at the waves. Which other misfortune was waiting for us?

.(During the crossing, the slave boat has been stopped and examined by an

English patrol and the Arabs slave traders arrested. All of them drove to Aden

port in Yemen. NDR) The children began to shout with joy believing that we can

return to our villages. Our joy won't last. The interpreter made us know that

it's going be difficult to bring us back to our villages.

Slavery was abolished. We were free.(To Aden) They made us go out of the boat.We

have been driven to the market place. The English commandant made a speech

translated in Arabic. We didn't understand anything. After it had been

translated in Habesh. As the slave trade was forbidden, they are going to give

us to families of officers and functionaries they trust..The officers were

Ottomans and the functionaries sanjaks. (One Ottoman officer, Yakup, in mission

to Aden took him and came back with him to Istanbul. NDR)

.It was winter. It was the first time that I saw the snow. I was cold. Yakup

offered me to somebody famous in Istanbul. I was disappointed. I loved Yakup

like my father. He offered me to the Cerkez Mehmet Pasa. Can somebody offer a

human as a gift? I understood after that it can happen.In 1918 with the

MESUTIET they freed us.We bought this house with a friend, lady of the palace.

We cope with it. It's our destiny."

Transward

[Uncle Flo (imported)]

I have some questions about how authentic this story is. From my rudimentary knowledge of Ottoman practices there seem to be a number of "errors" . --FLO--

[tjstill (imported)]

Thanks for finding all this detail. I have never read any of this before or was aware it existed. I hope to be able to find a little more on it. If I do I will of course post it here. What did you find unexpected about the translated account Uncle flo ?

[Uncle Flo (imported)]

To start: Hayrettin Effendi is the name of the standard bearer of Sultan Mehmed II at the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, he was famous for re-using Christian buildings and sites for Imperial public purposes. Effendi is a title of honor only bestowed on officers of the empire or those with important court connections, not a young slave. Galla is a derogatory, even obscene, term for the Oromo people of Ethiopia. And I am still fruitlessly looking for the original author's story of this slave. --FLO--

[Paolo]

Flo knows. He was there. And so was River.