The Turkmans Do Not Pay Any Miri, Or General Land Tax To The
Grand Signor, For The Ground They Occupy.
Families, if disgusted with
their chief, often pass from one tribe to another without any one daring
to prevent their departure.
The Ryhanlu, like most of the larger Turkman nations, are a nomade
people. They appear in their winter quarters in the plain of Antioch at
the end of September, and depart from thence towards the middle of
April, when the flies of the plain begin to torment their horses and
cattle. They then direct their march towards Marash, and remain in the
neighbourhood of that place about one month; from thence they reach the
mountains of Gurun and Albostan. The mountains which they occupy are
called Keukduli, Sungulu, and Kara Dorouk, (upon Kara Dorouk, they say,
are some fine ruins). Here they pass the hottest summer months; in
autumn they repass the plains of Albostan, and return by the same route
towards Antioch.
The winter habitations of the Turkmans in the hilly districts are, as I
have mentioned before, erected on the declivity of the hills, so as to
be by their position somewhat sheltered from the northerly winds.
Sometimes five or six families live together on one spot in as many
tents, but for the greater part tents of single families are met with at
one or two miles distance from each other. In proportion to the arable
land, which the hilly parts contain, these districts are better peopled
than the plain, where a thousand tents are scattered over an [p.636]
extent, of the most fertile country, of at least five hundred square
miles. The structure of the habitations of these nomades is of course
extremely simple: an oblong square wall of loose stones, about four feet
high, is covered over with a black cloth made of goats hair, which is
supported by a dozen or more posts, so that in the middle of the tent
the covering is elevated about nine feet from the ground. A stone
partition is built across the tent, near the entrance: I found in every
tent that the women had uniformly possession of the greater half to the
left of the door; the smaller half to the right hand side is
appropriated to the men, and there is also a partition at H [figure not
included], which generally serves as a stable for a favourite horse of
the master or of one of his sons. The rest of the horses and the cattle
are kept in caverns, which abound in these calcareous hills, or in
smaller huts built on purpose. Besides those who live in tents, many of
the Turkmans, especially in the plain, live in large huts fifteen feet
high, built and distributed like the tents, but having, instead of a
tent covering, a roof of rushes, which grow in great abundance on the
banks of the Afrin. The women’s room serves also as the kitchen; there
they work at their looms, and strangers never enter: unless, when, as I
was told, the Turkmans meaning to do great honour to a guest, allow him
a corner of the Harem to sleep in quiet among the women. The men’s
apartment is covered with carpets, which serve as beds to strangers and
to the unmarried members of the family; the married people retire into
the Harem. The Turkmans have also a kind of portable tent made of wood,
like a round bird cage, which they cover with large carpets of white
wool. The entrance may be shut up by a small door; it is the exclusive
habitation of the ladies, and is only met with in families who are
possessed of large property. The tent or hut of a Turkman is always
surrounded by three or four others, in which the Fellah families live
who cultivate his land. These Fellahs are the remaining peasants of
abandoned villages, or some poor straggling Kurds. The Turkmans find the
necessary seed, and receive in return half the produce, which is
collected by a few of them who remain for this purpose in the winter
quarters the whole year round. The Fellahs live wretchedly; whenever
they are able to scrape together a small pittance, their masters take it
from them under pretence of borrowing it; I was treated by several of
them at dinner with the best dish they could afford: bad oil, with
coarse bread; they never taste meat except when they kill a cow or an
ox, disabled by sickness or age; the greater part of them live literally
upon bread and water, neither fruits or vegetables being cultivated
here; they are nevertheless, a cheerful good-natured people; the young
men play, sing, and dance, every evening, and are infinitely better
tempered [p.637] than their haughty masters. My host, Mohammed Ali,
began a few years ago to plant a small garden of fruit trees near his
tents; his example will probably be generally followed, because the
Ryhanlu families, at every returning season, pitch their tents on the
same spot. It is only about ten years, that the Ryhanlu have cultivated
the land; like the other Turkman hordes they had always preferred the
wandering life of feeders of cattle. Agriculture was introduced among
them by the persuasion of Hayder Aga, whose daughter having married a
chief of the neighbouring Kurds, an alliance took place, which enabled
the Turkmans to perceive the advantages, derived by the Kurds from the
cultivation of the soil. The principal riches of the Turkmans however
still consist in cattle. Their horses are inferior to those of the Arabs
of the desert, but are well adapted for the mountains. Their necks are
shorter and thicker than those of the Arab horses, the head larger, the
whole frame more clumsy: the price of a good Turkman horse at Aleppo is
four or five hundred piastres, while twice that sum or more is paid for
an Arab horse of a generous breed.
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