The Women of Cairo: Volume II (Routledge Revivals) by Gerard De Nerval

Author:Gerard De Nerval [Nerval, Gerard De]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Middle East, Egypt, Travel, General
ISBN: 9781317574521
Google: QzJWBQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-11-13T01:24:44+00:00

PART II

THEATRES AND FESTIVALS

I

ILDIZ-KHAN

WHEN I had rested, I inquired how best I might find a way to take part in the nocturnal cele-brations in the Turkish city. My friend, the painter, whom I saw again during the day, knew all there was to be known about the manners of the country, and he told me that the only thing to do was for me to take up my abode in Stamboul, and that would be far from easy.

We took a caique to cross the Golden Horn, and disembarked at that same jetty by the fish market, where, the evening before, we had witnessed a scene of bloodshed. All the shops were closed. The Egyptian bazaar, which is near by, where groceries, colours and chemicals are sold, was hermetically sealed. Farther still, only the dogs inhabited and traversed the streets, astonished—during these first days of Ramadan —that they no longer received their daily pittance from a shop near the bazaar kept by an Armenian merchant who was an acquaintance of my friend. His shop was shut up, but as he was not subject to Mussulman law, he permitted himself the privilege of staying awake during the day, and going to bed as usual at night, though he showed no signs of such behaviour to the outside world.

We were able to dine with him, for he had taken the precaution of buying supplies of food the evening before; otherwise he would have had to go to Pera for them. At the outset, he thought it was absurd of me to think of going to live in Stamboul, seeing that no Christian was permitted to take up his domicile there: he might only visit the city during the day. There was not an hotel, not an inn, not even a caravansery, that he might stay at; the only exception being made for Armenians, Jews and Greeks, who are subjects of the Empire.

However, I would not give up my idea, and I told him how, at Cairo, I had created for myself an opportunity of living outside the Frankish quarter, by dressing in the native manner and giving myself out as a Copt.“Well,” said he,“there is but one thing you can do here, and that is to pretend to be a Persian. In Stamboul we have a caravansery called Ildiz-Khan (The Khan of the Star), and there are received all the Asiatic merchants who belong to different Mussulman communions. They belong not only to the sect of Ali; there are Guebres, Parsis, Koraites, Wahabis— such a babel of languages indeed that the Turks cannot possibly tell from what part of the East these men may come. So long as you do not speak a Northern tongue, which they might recognise by the pronunciation, you may be able to stay with them.”

We went to Ildiz-Khan. It is in the highest part of the town, near the Burnt Column, one of the most interesting relics of the ancient Byzantium. The caravansery, built entirely of stone, looked exactly like a cavern, when one entered it.

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