Turkish
Fountain, lower city.
Evliya
Çelebi visited Mistra in September 1668. Here are parts of his
description from Pierre MacKay's translation of the Morea portion of
the Seyahatname. Evliya's numbers should not be taken for court
evidence. The section headings are Evliya's from his manuscript. The text is taken from folios SN VIII.274a29 through SN VIII.275a31.
* * * * * * * * * *
[Coming from
Longaniko.]
Passing through
this town, I continued southeast along the foothills of the
Falcon Mountain of Ma'ni, and came through frightful and dangerous places
to the villages of Ag. Vasi'l, Koki'tsa, Ago'riani and Alevru'.
These are all in the foothills of the mountains of Ma'ni, and
together they comprise three or four hundred houses. They are Greek
villages with gardens and orchards, and belong to the juridical
district of Mistra' command. From there it was 4 hours to Mistra'.
Conquests of
the province of Mesokhori, which is the description of the castle of
Mistra
Some write the
name Misistra, but in the Imperial registers, they write "The
Province of Mesokho'ri," and in official titulatures it is known
as the Mezistra command. According to the statements of ancient
Greek historians, it was built first by King Solomon, and the next
builder was Rehoboam, son of the prophet Solomon. Then King Philip,
having built the city of Athens, was so pleased with the air and
water of this city of Mistra' that he edified it still further, and
because the actual work on the building was done by his vizier, Meso
Khor, the lower city is called Mesokho'ri in the Greek histories. In
the Frankish tongue they call it . . . , and in the Latin tongue it
is Mistir. This ancient city and mighty fortress was taken by the
Conqueror Sultan Mehmed Khan in person, in the year. . . .
It was
formerly the capital city of the King of the Venetian Franks, and is
now the capital city of the Bey of the Mistra' command. According to
the cadastral register, the special reserve for the Pasha is 219000
aspers. There are 11 zeamet-class and l9 timar-class fiefs. There
is a Levy Commander (Alay Beyi) and a Captain of Troops (Çeri
başi), and according to the code the total levy of men-at-arms is a
force of three thousand men. The Bey (Sancak Beyi) is assigned to
naval duties under the Grand Admiral, who is Commander-in- chief for
the Governorate, and he takes three galleys on campaign. He derives
nine purses of revenue annually from the administration of justice in
this command.
Religious law is the province of a sacred jurisdiction
valued at three hundred aspers, and there are . . . district
villages. The Judge's annual income from the administration of
justice is eight purses. The Chief Mufti is the Excellent Hamdi
Efendi, a creature perfect in knowledge, outstanding in temperament,
rich in elevated nobility and majestic in scholarship. There is a
Marshal of the descendants of the Prophet and a Judge-substitute for
the lower city. There is a Local Commander of Troops (Sipa^h Ka^hya
Yeri), a Captain of Janissaries and many magnates and notables. There
is a Castle Commandant and twenty-four garrison personnel. There is
an Inspector of Commerce with the rank of Ag"a, a Commissioner
of Customs Duties, a Commissioner of Tribute Taxes, a Collector of
Transit Dues, a Chief Architect with the rank of Ag"a, a City
Intendant and a . . .. There is a Proto'geros for the Greek
infidels, a Chief of the Congregation for the Jews and Consuls for
the Franks, because this is a well-ordered city.
A chapter on
the entire appearance of the city of Mistra'
According to the
personal observations of your poor and humble servant, this high
castle is at the foot of the mountains of Ma'ni on a steep smooth
white rock, attached to the Falcon Mountain. There is a strong
fortress and a mighty rampart reaching to the very sky, an
almond-shaped masonry citadel of archaic workmanship. Together with
its lower circuit it forms three subdivisions, making up a stalwart
and well-built defense. There are three gates. One opens to the
east, and this is the gate to the inner keep, located in that line of
defense. The gate of the middle castle opens to the southeast and
the gate of the outer division opens west and is in a very dark and
shady place. In front of this gate is the Station of the Conqueror
Mehmed Khan. This is a smooth slab of hard stone where the Conqueror
performed a prostration of heartfelt thanksgiving, just as the castle
was taken. In the place where his forehead touched the stone during
the prostration of worship, there is now a little polished
depression, and when the blessed rain collects here, epileptics and
people with fevers come here and drink the rainwater, in which, by
the will of God, they find recovery.
In the central
keep of this three-part citadel is the residence of the Castle
Commandant, and there is also an armory, a provisions store and a
water cistern, but nothing else. In this entire three-part citadel
there is a total of eighty lofty tile-roofed houses with splendid
views, and the mosque of Sultan Mehmed Khan is here in this citadel
too, an old-fashioned place of worship with no minaret. The entire
circumference of this citadel complex, measured around the
battlements, is eight hundred paces. If a man looks down from this
castle -- God's truth -- his gall-bladder will burst from terror, for
it is such a lofty castle, reaching up to the very sky, that even to
look up at it sets a man's mind to whirling as if he were staring
into the center of a narcissus flower.
The station of
the Excellent Ak Sems u"d-Din
Outside the
castle, on the rock where he worshipped, there are the holes worn
away by his tears falling drop by drop, and traces of the place
where his holy knees touched the hard rock. For this reason they say
that the castle of Mistra' was taken by the tears of Ak S,ems
u"d-Din. Down the hill from this holy place is the lower
castle. Commendation of the construction of the mighty lower castle
This is a huge fortress, surrounding the citadel on the east,
north and west sides, while on the south side, as God is my refuge,
the steep rock cliff, which is a hundred fathoms deep and precipitous
as the pits of Hell, results in there being neither walls nor towers,
for they are not needed.
The entire
circumference of this five sided castle is nine thousand long paces
all round. There is no moat on any side, for the castle is built
on a hard, steep, solid rock. There are eight gates altogether. One
is the little gate to the prayer ground, and this opens westward.
Another is the market gate, which also opens west. Then there is the. . . gate which opens to the east, the gate of the Kurd Ag"a
mosque, which opens north, and the lower market gate which opens
south . In addition to these, there is a number of small arched
posterns in the city, whereas the ones mentioned above are the big
gates on the main thoroughfares. Inside the city there are altogether
one thousand one hundred inhabited and prosperous masonry houses
built by the infidels, storey upon storey, one up against the other,
with no yards but with a fine view. Only this year, however, a
raging fire burned down six hundred of them and many of the houses
are still undergoing repairs or rebuilding. The houses are built one
above another, and are lofty dwellings with a view out to the east
and north, over the plain of St. Nikon.
A count of the
mosques in this castle
There are seven
places of worship. First the Fethiye mosque, which is a mosque of
Sultan Mehmed Khan, then the market mosque and the Zal mosque. The
rest are neighborhood mosques for the faithful. There is one college
for burning scholars, two primary schools for
5 well-born and properly raised heart's darlings, one convent for
elders in the way of asceticism, one bath to refresh and soothe, two
hundred shops for artisans and craftsmen, one inn for merchants, one
caravanserai for travelers, and seven churches and monasteries for
the meaningless mumblings of infidels. Of these, the monastery of St.
Nikon is the best built.
A noteworthy
marvel
Inside this
castle, in the Greek and Jewish quarters, and in other places too,
there are twenty-nine places called "cool- rooms," great
cellars and natural caves worked into a finished shape. Each of
these will hold a thousand people, and in July, the whole city, from
the best of Muslim society to the worst of dissolute drunkards make
themselves comfortable in these cellars and carry on their
enjoyments, pleasures and festivities there. Even during the dog-days
a man cannot sit near the entrance of these cellars without wearing
furs. The people of the city chill their water, their wine and their
sweet fruit drinks here. These are remarkable cellars to visit,
where one cannot endure the cold even in July. Outside the castle,
the mosque of Kurd Çelebi has just been built, and it is a very fine
mosque. Then you go two thousand paces down a steep slope to the
suburb of Mesokho'ri.
Praise of the
suburb of Mesokhori
There are five
hundred spacious tile-roofed masonry houses with gardens and orchards
on a level plain here. There are ten Muslim neighborhoods, five
congregations of Jews, and eleven Greek neighborhoods. There are
six Muslim places of worship and one is a very well-appointed mosque
. . .. There are also four neighborhood mosques. There is one upper
school for burning scholars, two primary schools for children's
youthful ABCs, two dervish chapels, and two open prayer grounds. One
of these is north of the castle and one south of it. There is one
damp and rather dirty little bath, four inns for merchants, and one
caravanserai for travellers which the judge of Mistra',
{{Zekeriya}} Efendi, has just built. Among the great houses are
the Palace of the Pasha, the palace of Ako Bey, the . . . Ag"a
palace, the . . . palace and the law-court palace, which are all fine
residences. There are eighty shops, of which the tanners' hall and
the silk- workers' market are the richest.
You cross the
river . . . that runs in front of this suburb by way of a single
arched bridge. This river goes on to join the great Eurotas river that flows through the plain of St. Nikon and then
runs on close by the E'los plain and empties into the Mediterranean
close to Bardhu'nia and Pa'ssava castles. Inside the city there are
seventy water-mills. There are altogether three thousand gardens,
orchards and flower-plots, and there are abundant lemons, oranges,
figs and grapes. The vineyards are spread all over the hills west of
the castle, and the plain is all set out in gardens irrigated with
running water. Roses, hyacinths and herbs flourish in these gardens
as in the gardens of Paradise. In the month of July, however, the
air is heavy and thick, although it is very pleasant in winter. The
water is very tasty and pleasant, and there are thousands of springs
flowing abundantly, so that in every trellised melon patch there is a
spring of sweet digestive water. The lovely boys and girls are
famous, and both boys and girls are doe-eyed, or gazelle-eyed,
sweet-voiced, radiant-faced fairy creatures, fit for a king to gaze
on.
Among the
celebrated products are silk cloth and thread, crimson (pirnokok)
vegetable dye, tart black mulberries and black figs. All the people
are Greekish, and since they mingle continually with the Greek
infidels in their buyings and sellings, they are Muslims who speak
the purest form of the Greek tongue.
