Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/193

Rh Gradually "the seat of the prophet" (palace) became the center and the den of the most cruel butcheries and unheard of tortures. Any Ottoman subject, be he a Turk or Christian, a common student or vizier, a stranger or relative to the palace, upon the slightest suspicion or false accusation unfavorable to their plans would be summoned to the horrible circles of "the star palace" and put to death. The bottom of the Bosphorus and Marmoral waters were covered with the bones of slaughtered students and officers, men and women of the imperial harem, until all the authority remained in the hands of a degenerate Arab slave called Aziz Effendi, who blotted the history of the nineteenth century with infamous deeds of cruelty and vice.

2. The Second Step was to caress and enthuse the fanaticism of the Moslem population and show them that a zealous and true caliph was occupying the sacred seat of the prophet. It was very easy to deceive the ignorant. Sultan Hamid ordered several mosques and tekkiehs to be erected around the palace and bigoted shiekhs were rallied in them and encouraged to practice their religious services under the supervision of "the pious sovereign," who himself was very regular to attend these mosques for his Friday noon prayer, which is called "selamlik" (the procession of the Sultan and the princes and all civil, military and religious chief officers, encircled by thousands of soldiers and spectators).

The public criers repeatedly walked in the streets and bazaars of Constantinople to inform the Moslem