Friday, October 7, 2016

Account of the Tribe of Ettels (Evliya Chelebi, [1647] 1850)

Account of the Tribe of Ettels




Ettel signifies in the Mogolic language, tongue of dogs; they take this name from their war-cry, which is a kind of howling. Near Mardin, in the sanjak of the mountains, which I entered with Melek Ahmed Pasha, the Ettels are a tribe like that of the hairy Kurds, impure, impious, irreligious robbers, who pretend to be of Hamza’s sect, keep neither prayer-hours nor fasts, are ignorant of moral duties and of God. Seven or eight of them share a woman amongst them; if she gets with child, her seven or eight keepers after some time assemble, and the woman gives an apple into the child’s hand, the man to whom the child gives it is reckoned to be the father, and henceforth the woman belongs exclusively to him, without any man being allowed to raise pretensions to her. The famous sect of the candle-extinguishers (Mum sonduren), must be a branch of them, because I saw or heard nothing of them any where else. It is a certain fact that they drink out of the shoes of their Shahs, to whom they are most obedient.

The Kaitaks are about twenty thousand men on the frontiers of Daghistan, who sometimes come to the towns of Aras and Sheki; a strange race of men like the beast of the day of judgement, with heads in the form of kettles, brows two fingers broad, shoulders so square that a man may easily stand upon them, thin limbs, round eyes, large heels, and red faces. They pretend to be Shafites; if they come to the market of Aras and Sheki, they come on wagons, or ride on buffaloes, because horses and asses could not carry their weight: as they pass with their turbans of the size of a cupola, saluting on both sides with great dignity, they seem to be of the race of Dejal (the Antichrist) true Oghuzians. These Kaitaks come originally from the province of Mahan, are Mogholian Turks, and therefore speak the Mogolic language, of which I could only collect a few words, as I remained but two days among them. I saw these people in the district of Mahmudabad, and after having travelled further to the north, reached the kent Chailan on the frontier of Shirvan on the banks of the river of Guilan, with six hundred houses of Turcomans and Oghuzians. Further on is the town Niazabad on the frontier of Shirvan built by Yezdejerd-shah, great ruins of its ancient magnificence are yet extant, it was ruined by the Moghols, who united with the Komuks and Kaitaks of Daghistan. In the reign of Murad III, Ferhad Pasha fixed his winter quarters here, and leveled the castle, when he left it in the spring. It is now the frontier between Daghistan and Persia, with forty quarters and as many mosques, a khan, bath and market-place, the seat of a Sultan who commands a thousand men. There are twelve magistrates; according to the statement of the Kelenter, there are more than six thousand houses surrounded by gardens. It is a pity that its strong castle lies in ruins; if God should again grant that it be restored to the Ottoman power, it might be easily repaired, and become a very strong castle. This town is surrounded by an endless plain on all four sides.



Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa in the Seventeenth Century by Evliya Efendi, Vol. II (1850)

No comments:

Post a Comment