Nicholas Danforth, Georgetown University
Given the persistent notion that, both now and in the 1950s, Ottoman nostalgia in Turkey is inevitably linked to Islamist politics, it is always interesting to see how consistently not only movies but Turkish popular history magazines from earlier decades used the Ottoman past, in true Orientalist fashion, as an excuse to depict violence and topless women. It's the kind of subject someone could write a whole dissertation about, but one article from the April 15, 1950 issue of Niyazi Ahmet Banoğlu's successful Tarih Dunyası pretty much gets the point across. The account seems to be taken from Ahmed Refik (Altınay)'s Kadınlar Sultanatı, with some changes to make it more colorful, more salacious, and more anti-Semitic.
Refik's original history was published in 1916, but fit well with the early Republic's efforts to depict an era of Ottoman decline in which woman, national minorities and religious fundamentalists took control of the Empire and destroyed its former greatness. The event described is the only documented case of officially sanctioned stoning in Ottoman history. As the account notes, even its religious legitimacy was questionable, as there were not actually four witnesses to the adulterous act. By emphasizing this point, Banoğlu softens the critique of Ottoman religious fundamentalism while preserving the past as an exotic setting for his story.
A Fallen Woman Executed by Stoning
By Niyazi Ahmet Banoğlu
That day the side streets and public thoroughfares were pouring people into Sultanahmed Square like
rivers. Excitement, curiosity and fury had reached their limit. The growing cry announced that a fearful agitation was beginning. The matter was dreadful, exciting and strange. So much so that Sultan Mehmet the Hunter himself had come to Fazli Pasha’s Palace, overlooking the square, and prepared to watch what was to occur.
The turbaned men of religion were critical:
- In adultery four witnesses are needed. Maiz, who was stoned in the Prophet’s time, confessed “I
committed adultery, oh Prophet." The Prophet turned to Maiz and made him repeat himself four
times. Then he ordered him stoned.
- Meaning that since then stoning has never happened like that again?
- It seems today will be the second time.
Yes, today, the shoemaker Abdullah Çelebi’s wedded wife was to be buried to her waist near the Snake Column in the square, then torn to death by stones thrown by the furious crowd. The people were truly enraged. A married woman had had engaged in illicit relations, and what’s more, done so with a cloth-dealing Jew.
Shouts of “shameless,” “dirty” and “treacherous woman,” grew as they spread from mouth to mouth.
Soon thousands were repeating the same words. Everyone had filled their hands and their pockets with as many stones as they could hold, and everyone was waiting to throw these stones, which they had carried for hours, at the adulteress.
When Abdullah Çelebi’s beautiful wife had been buried to her waist, Beyazizade Ahmed Efendi, who had condemned her to death in accordance with the holy sharia, shouted “to her elbows! Bury her to her elbows!” but he couldn’t be heard. The Janissaries and the executioner who were burying her fell under a barrage of stones from the impatient crowd.
The young and beautiful woman, exhausted from pleading her innocence, took on the unnatural
expression of one who is facing death. When the janissaries jumped aside to save themselves from the flying stones, a shrill and soul-piercing cry rose above the deafening shouts of the thousands-strong crowd. This was such a cry, such rebellion, such a fearful plea that for a second the raised arms froze, the shouts ceased and for a moment the square was filled with a deep silence as fearful as the din before it. It was as if the stones had all fallen from their hands.
This silence and hesitation lasted a few seconds. Then another voice:
Stone, Stone the harlot, it roared.
Throats opened, the shouting started again, and a minute later Abdullah Çelebi’s beautiful wife disappeared beneath the flying stones.
Justice had been done. Now a second scene began. The Jew, who, hoping to be spared, had accepted Islam out of fear the previous day, would be executed. That he was single saved him from stoning, but it could not save him from the executioner’s blade.
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