ARCHiPELAGOS • VIII. IN TIMES OF INDIGENCE

AMÉLIA MUGE & MICHALES LOUKOVIKAS

ARCHiPELAGOS / Passages

 

VIII. IN TIMES OF INDIGENCE

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● Without Gods ● We ● Spell
● The Aegean Islands ● The Ruin of Hellas
● We Talk About Shadows (Democracy)
● A Beginning

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/PORTUGUÊS/ ARCHiPELAGOS • VIII. EM TEMPO DE INDIGÊNCIA

/ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ/ ΑΡΧΙΠΕΛΑΓΟΣ • VIII. ΣΤΗΝ ΕΠΟΧΗ ΤΗΣ ΕΝΔΕΙΑΣ

ARCHiPELAGOS / Passages: AMÉLIA MUGE & MICHALES LOUKOVIKAS

Hélia Correia: The Third Misery & Indignation (excerpts)

• Adapted into English by Michales Loukovikas

17. Without Gods

– Hélia Correia / Amélia Muge
• Arranged by A. Muge, António José Martins, Michales Loukovikas

What’s the use, […] what is the purpose
Of a poet in times of such indigence?

[…] without gods, without even
Feeling their absence, we are born,
And unable to remember, draining,
Sucking everything, even that which do not
Serve us as aliment, whatever circulates
In the bowels of the earth, its own lymph,
The one that the Argonauts even saw
Exuding, like blood, from rocks and stones
When everything sang, got injured and wounded.

• Voice: A. Muge / Vocals: Maria Monda, A. Muge • D. Bass: António Quintino
Percussion: José Salgueiro / Violin: Kyriakos Gouventas

Argo, by Konstantinos Volanakis

● Hélia Correia (born 1949): a Portuguese novelist, playwright, and poet. She reinterpreted Hellenic myths from the point of view of female heroines, such as Antigone, Helen, and Medea. The sequence In Times of Indigence is mainly based on her acclaimed poem A Terceira Miséria (2012), a tribute to Greece, following in Friedrich Hölderlin’s footsteps. She was awarded the Camões Prize, the most prestigious literary distinction in the Lusophone world, which she dedicated to Hellas, where poetry comes from, without which we would be nothing and have nothing, as she said, concluding her speech with the exclamation Long live Greece! Therefore it’s a double pity that no one is interested in publishing The Third Misery in Greece. Well, this is a fourth misery on our part! ● Argonauts: heroes in Hellenic mythology who, in the years before the Trojan War, around 1300 BCE, accompanied Jason to Colchis, on the Black Sea coast, in present-day Abkhazia and western Georgia, in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. The term comes from their ship, Argo, named after its builder, Argus. Thus Argonauts literally means Argo sailors. ● While sailing by eastern Phrygia, they encountered stormy weather and, advised by a prophet, they climbed Mount Dindymon, sacred to the mountain mother, Cybele, whom the Hellenes identified with Rhea. There they offered sacrifices to the Dindymene mother and, commanded by Orpheus, they danced in full armour and clashed with their swords on their shields… Hence from that time forward the Phrygians propitiate Rhea with the rhombus and the drum. And the goddess responded: the trees shed fruit, the earth put forth flowers, and wild animals came up wagging their tails. And she caused yet another marvel; for hitherto there was no flow of water on Dindymon, but then an unceasing stream gushed forth from the peak, and the dwellers around called that stream Spring of Jason. And then they made a feast in honour of the goddess on the Mount of Bears, singing the praises of Rhea most venerable; at dawn the winds had ceased and they rowed away from the island. (Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica)

18. We

– Hélia Correia / Michales Loukovikas
• Arranged by M. Loukovikas

We, the abandoned ones, those who do not
Even perceive in what way to placate
And whom,
We, the dumbfounded,
Fraternized with all the landless, we,
The destined for a bleak starvation,
Barbarians with our feet in the black tar,
Heavy drinkers of petroleum, how can it be that

Once more the square,
The Agora, unites us?

• Voice: Amélia Muge / Vocals: Maria Monda, A. Muge • D. Bass: António Quintino
Guitar: Dimitris Mystakidis / Percussion: José Salgueiro / Piano: Filipe Raposo

● Agora: a central spot in ancient Hellenic poleis. Literally it means gathering place, assembly. The agora was the centre of political, artistic, spiritual and athletic life of the city. Later, it also served as an economic centre, as a marketplace, where merchants kept stalls or shops to sell their goods. This attracted artisans who built workshops nearby. From this twin function of the agora as a political and commercial space came the two Greek verbs ἀγορεύω, agoreúō, I speak in public and ἀγοράζω, agorázō, I shop, I buy.

An imaginary depiction of the Agora of ancient Athens at the time of Pericles

19. Spell

– Hélia Correia / Amélia Muge
• Arranged by António José Martins, Filipe Raposo

All those – not in existence
Those who have left us terrified, alone,
With no proper tools and devices,
Without thinking,
Without these temperamental gods
Who liked to take sides during the battles.

Being transformed into pigs, by a spell,
Due to malevolence,
Oh, yes, exactly
Just like in the Odyssey,
We do not know
– and the Greeks cannot remember –
What can we do so as to
Break the spell?

Circe Invidiosa, by John William Waterhouse

Experiments
– Amélia Muge

The ear of a pig
Plus a cat’s paw
The eye of a mouse
A crooked branch
Half of the beak of a skylark

Rosemary dried
A pomegranate
A lame’s nail
The leg of a frog
Grandma’s tongue,
preferably twisted

A drop of spit
A cactus peak
And a fish scale
A pussy’s fur
Wings of a fly bound in a bundle

An arm and a leg
A rubber check
A coin with a hole
The belch of a banker
An entire year’s sweat

• Voice, vocal effects, recitation: A. Muge
• Percussion: José Salgueiro, A.J. Martins
Synthesizers: F. Raposo

● Odyssey: see Homer in ARCHiPELAGOS • VII. IMAGINARY ISLANDS.

●

20. The Aegean Islands

– Hélia Correia / Manos Achalinotópoulos, Amélia Muge
– A free improvisation
by Harris Lambrakis, M. Achalinotópoulos, A. Muge, Kyriakos Gouventas
• Arranged by Michales Loukovikas

[…] Only later […]
He who did not know how to be docile […]
Became conscious of the howl that was emitted
From all the islands, with their shorelines
And their deserted forests. […]

[…] Yes, that was
The initial misery, the desertion of
The gods. The second one, their death,
That on Pan’s death was announced
With the lament of the forests, the mournful
Clamour of the Aegean Islands. […]

What’s the use, […] what is the purpose
Of a poet in times of such indigence?

• Recitation: H. Correia / Voice: A. Muge / Vocal impros: M. Achalinotópoulos, A. Muge
• Instrumental impros: H. Lambrakis, ney; M. Achalinotópoulos, clarino; K. Gouventas, violin
Drones: K. Gouventas, viola; António Quintino, d. bass; Catarina Anacleto, cello

Pan and Syrinx, by Jean François de Troy.

● Aegean Islands: see ARCHiPELAGOS • I. THE ARCHIPELAGO REVISITED. ● Pan: the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, mountains, and pastoral music, connected to fertility and spring. He had the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, just like a satyr. The Greeks also considered him to be the god of theatrical criticism. His name originates from the Greek verb πάειν, páein (to pasture); the word panic is derived from his name, due to the sudden fear the people felt in the mountains hearing strange animal sounds. Syrinx, a nymph known for her chastity, was also panicked when she was chased after by Pan. In order to escape, she was transformed into hollow water reeds that made a haunting sound when the god’s frustrated breath blew across them. He cut the reeds to fashion the first set of pan pipes, which are also known as syrinx. Pan became a significant figure in the Romantic movement in the 18th and 19th centuries, and also in the Neopagan movement of the 20th-century.

●

21. The Ruin of Hellas

– Hélia Correia / Michales Loukovikas
• Arranged by M. Loukovikas

We, the atheists, we, the monotheists,
We, anyone reducing sheer beauty
Down to petty chores, we, the poor but
Well-adorned, the poor but feeling cozy,
Who are always willing to delude ourselves
Amazed while gazing upwards, at the towers,
Supposing that inside we could reside,
Glory of eagles with no eagles there,
We suffer, yes, from the one and same indigence,
From the ruin of Hellas.

● Atheism: the absence of belief in the existence of deities, the rejection of belief that any deities exist. It is contrasted with theism, which is the belief that at least one deity exists. The etymological root for the word originated before the 5th century BCE from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning without god(s). The actual term atheism emerged in the 16th century. ● Monotheism: the belief in the existence of only one god that created the world, where he interferes and is all-powerful. A distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, and both inclusive or panentheistic monotheism which, while recognizing various distinct gods, postulate some underlying unity. Monotheism is distinguished from henotheism, a religious system in which the believer worships one god without denying that others may worship different gods with equal validity, and monolatrism, the recognition of the existence of many gods but with the consistent worship of only one deity.

• Voice: Amélia Muge / Vocals: Maria Monda, A. Muge • Clarino: Manos Achalinotópoulos
D. Bass: António Quintino / Guitar: Dimitris Mystakidis / Ney: Harris Lambrakis
Percussion: José Salgueiro / Piano: Filipe Raposo / Violin: Kyriakos Gouventas

22. We Talk About Shadows (Democracy)

– Hélia Correia / Ludwig van Beethoven
• Adapted/Arranged by Michales Loukovikas

The Third Symphony (Eroica), Second Movement, first part
Marcia funebre, Adagio assai, Sotto voce (1804)

Yes, we talk about shadows. Thinking twice,
We did burn every thing: Alexandria,
The sages and the women, […]
The noble heart. We have on our shoulders
The apparatus of the destroyers, […]:
That kind of arrogance
Out of which the Occident has been lost.

The third misery is this one, […].
That of those who just don’t listen nor ask questions.
[…] don’t remember. And, contrary
To the exalted Pericles, they turn to
Be one with […] those who surrender,
Those who shall mix themselves like a liquid
Within a liquid mass, the form is lost,
The statue is turned into dust.

All the squares
Seem like agoras of yore, astounded
By the concentration of organisms,
By the use of the word, the passionate
And fervent word of democracy […]

Monument to Beethoven, by Francesco Jerace (1895)

• Voice: Amélia Muge / Vocals: Maria Monda, A. Muge, Rui Vaz, José Manuel David, Pedro Casaes
• Cello: Catarina Anacleto / Clarinet: Kosmás Papadópoulos / D. Bass: António Quintino
Ney: Harris Lambrakis / Percussion: José Salgueiro / Piano: Filipe Raposo
Violin, Viola: Kyriakos Gouventas

● Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827): a German composer and pianist, a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music. He remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. ● His Third Symphony, a large-scale composition completed in early 1804, is one of his most celebrated works. Initially he dedicated it to (Napoleon) Buonaparte (its original title), who he believed embodied the democratic and anti-monarchical ideals of the French Revolution. He tore off the dedication when he learned that Napoleon had declared himself Emperor. The score was published in 1806 under the Italian title Sinfonia Eroica, composta per festeggiare il sovvenire di un grande Uomo (Heroic Symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great Man). When informed of Napoleon’s death (1821), Beethoven said, I wrote the music for this sad event 17 years ago, referring to the second movement, Marcia funebre, funeral march; Adagio assai, very slow; Sotto voce, low voice: intentionally lowering the volume of one’s voice for emphasis, giving the impression of uttering a truth which may surprise, shock, or offend. In music, it is a dramatic lowering of the volume, vocal or instrumental – not necessarily pianissimo, but definitely a hushed tonal quality.

Hypatia, by Charles William Mitchell (1885)

● Alexandria: founded circa 331 BCE by Alexander the Great, it became an important centre of the Hellenistic civilization. It was famous for its Lighthouse (Pharos), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and its Great Library, the largest in antiquity, which was burned repeatedly by Romans, Byzantines, and Arabs. Its demise has become a symbol of knowledge and culture destroyed. It was part of a larger research institution, the Musaeum, where many of the most famous thinkers of the ancient world studied: Archimedes, Aristarchus, Ctesibius, Eratosthenes, Euclid, Hero, Hipparchus… Most of the books were kept as papyrus scrolls. Estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 scrolls at its height. After the main library was destroyed, scholars used a daughter library in a temple, the Serapeum, located in another part of the city. ● In 391 CE the Serapeum and the remnants of the Great Library were looted and burned by army troops and Christian fanatics, at the decrees of the Emperor Theodosius and Pope Theophilus. In The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon described Theophilus as the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue, a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and with blood. ● The Great Terror in Alexandria climaxed in 415 with the brutal murder of the philosopher, mathematician and astronomer Hypatia, instigated by Cyril, Theophilus’ nephew and successor, counted among the Church Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and canonized as a Saint! In his Historia Ecclesiastica, Socrates of Constantinople, a contemporary Christian historiographer, testified that Cyril agitated a mob of 500 fanatic monks possessed “by a fierce and bigoted zeal [… They] waylaid [Hypatia] returning home and, dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum [Cyril’s headquarters], where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with ostraka [potsherds]. After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them.”

Cleisthenes

● Democracy (δημοκρατία, rule of the people) was conceived in classical Greece as a system of government where the citizens exercised power directly, not through representatives. The first democracy in the world was established in Athens in 508 BCE under Cleisthenes as a direct, participatory system, in which the citizens voted themselves on legislation and executive bills, while those selected for office served collectively. The selection was done mostly by lot, not election, because the latter favours the rich, noble, famous, educated, eloquent, and handsome. Allotment was regarded as the most democratic means to prevent the corrupt purchase of votes and give citizens a unique form of political equality. In this way more and more citizens were engaged in politics, ruling and being ruled in turn, as Aristotle wrote. Elected rather than chosen by lot (therefore coming from the higher classes) were the ten generals, due to their necessary expertise in matters of politics and war, and also those who handled large sums of money: any embezzlement could be recovered from their estates. The contempt the first democrats felt for those who did not participate in politics is obvious in the word idiot, from the Greek ἰδιώτης, i.e. a private person, someone who is not actively participating in politics. We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business, Pericles declared; we say that he has no business here at all. ● Pericles (c. 495 – 429 BCE): a prominent, influential statesman, orator and general, between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, whose name is connected with the Golden Age of Athens.

Pericles’ Funeral Oration, by Philipp Foltz (1852)

23. A Beginning

– Hélia Correia / Amélia Muge
• Arranged by António José Martins, Filipe Raposo

What are the arms at our disposal, if not these
We find inside the body: our own thinking,
The idea of polis, but redeemed
From a great abuse, the very notion of home and
Of hospitality, too, and of commotion
From which we see the rise of the poem, from which
We’ll see the rise of the collection of our deeds
And misdeeds as humans, a beginning.

• Voice: A. Muge / Vocals: Maria Monda • Cello: Catarina Anacleto / D. Bass: António Quintino
Ney: Harris Lambrakis / Percussion: José Salgueiro / Piano: F. Raposo / Violin, Viola: Kyriakos Gouventas

● Polis literally means city in Greek, but referring mainly to the body of its citizens rather than its area; it can also mean citizenship. The Hellenic term that specifically means the totality of urban buildings and spaces is ἄστυ (ásty). Before the Battle of Salamis e.g., the Persians managed to occupy the ásty of Athens, but not the polis, as the citizens boarded the ships of the Athenian fleet and left. In modern historiography, polis is used to indicate a Greek city-state, though this term is inadequate. The Greek poleis were not like the Phoenician city-states, which were ruled by a king or a small oligarchy, with their inhabitants being mere subjects. Thus the term polis came to signify state: politeia in Hellenic means city, but also state, republic, polity, government, governance, etc. while politeuma means regime. Not to mention politics…

●

The Library of Alexandria during its heyday, its acme

• >> ARCHiPELAGOS • IX. NOSTALGIA AND NOSTOS
• << ARCHiPELAGOS • VII. IMAGINARY ISLANDS

Chronicle 10. THE… “SUN LANGUAGE”

Chronicle 10. THE… “SUN LANGUAGE”

/ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ/ Χρονικο 10. Η… “ΓΛΩΣΣΑ-ΗΛΙΟΣ”

Calligraphic tree of life, Turkey (1897-98)

● Linguistics à la Turca ● İsmail Beşikçi and the Kurds ● Egyptian, Graeco-Byzantine, Arabo-Persian and Turkish Music ● Assimilation Through Religion and
Language ● Arabic Music Schools

Michales Loukovikas

“HITTITES, SUMERIANS, EGYPTIANS, ROMANS, Indians and Chinese: they all owe their existence to the Turkic race; their cultures and languages have been created by the Turks. Arabs and Jews are of Turkic origin; the prophet Muhammad was a Turk, as well. And all the languages of the world are derived from Turkish, the mother of all languages. The Kurdish language is non-existent; it is just a corrupt dialect of Turkish; the Kurds are nothing but Turkish highlanders”.

Psychotic megalomania? Absolutely! But also a… university thesis, or even more: an official state policy! This aphorism might very well be the starting point of a synopsis about the official Turkish ideology on the national question. Everyone in the Eurasian zone – except the Hellenes, the Persians, and… barbarians – owe almost everything to the Turks: their very existence, their language and culture, let alone their music!

“What about the Hellenes?”, some “Romioí” anxiously insist on asking, as they refuse to accept that they have either… never existed, or – most likely – are included among the “Romans” of the above citation quoted from the gold-bound kitabs of the sages.

“The question on the origin of the Yunanlılar [Ionians] has been clear since the time of Homer”, is the smug reply. “The great rhapsode was also a Turk called Omer. Besides, the Europeans have preserved his name almost intact: Homer”!

Well, I’m not referring to freaks of a sick mind. It is perhaps hard to believe but these ideas are championed by academics! The “Great Idea” (Megale Idea) has died out in Greece(?), but in Turkey it is alive and well, and (desires to be) the master of the world…

Anatolian languages

The Kurdish languages belong to the Iranian and Indo-Iranian branches of the Indo-European family. Therefore, they are related to the Persian (Farsi), Indian Sanskrit, Hellenic and most European languages. Even… worse (for the Turkish “linguists”), the ancient languages in the Anatolian area, still spoken or extinct, such as Hittite, have also been Indo-European.⁽¹⁾

Asia Minor/Anatolia: the multitude of peoples, languages and countries in antiquity.

• ⁽¹⁾ Most probably by the 1st century BCE, the native Anatolian languages went extinct, since the area was heavily Hellenized after the conquests of Alexander the Great. This makes Anatolian the first known branch of Indo-European to become extinct. The languages that are attested (written in cuneiform or hieroglyphs) are the following:

Hittite in central Anatolia; Carian; Lydian; Cappadocian; Pisidian; Sidetic in Pamphylia; Palaic in Paphlagonia; Isaurian on the Taurus Mountains; the Lycian branch, where Milyan is included; the Luwian branch, centered in Cilicia, but also extending northwest, where the Trojan language perhaps belonged; possibly Lycaonian; or the subsequent Pamphylian. Other Indo-European tongues in the peninsula were Phrygian and Mysian, probably belonging to the Paleo-Balkan languages, together with Thracian, Dacian, the Illyrian branch, and others, indicating that the Phrygians, and possibly the Mysians, went to Anatolia from the Balkans.

● Nationalism cries out: “one country, one people, one language!”, versus Reality, depicted in the above diverse mosaic of Anatolian countries, peoples, and languages.

Against this panspermia of ancient native Indo-European Anatolian languages and dialects, the Turkic languages (Turkish is just one of them) are relatively newcomers in Asia Minor, and belong to the Altaic family, together with the Mongolic tongues. Some linguists group the Altaic and Uralic (or Finno-Ugric) languages together (in the Ural-Altaic family). No such hypothesis connecting the Altaic and Indo-European languages has been put forward. It doesn’t matter much to Ankara’s “scientists”. So, they teach linguistics this way… à la turca:

Subject: The Sun Language Theory

“As is well known, the word soleil means sun in French. In the Turkic dialect of Yakut [Sakha] we can find the corresponding word silai. As the ‘s’ of the Yakut dialect turns to ‘g’ in the other Turkic dialects,⁽²⁾ it is self-evident [!] that the word comes from a Turkic root meaning light. Nevertheless, the Turks prefer the more common Turkish word günes. But the proof of the Turkic origin of the word soleil has been a revelation of a great linguistic and scientific truth, from which most important conclusions are derived”…

Signed (unashamedly): İ. N. Dilmen, professor.

The theory that Anatolia might be the cradle of the Indo-European languages was distorted into a pseudo-theory they had a Turkic/Turkish origin though: a) the popular hypothesis postulates their root in the Pontic-Caspian steppe and expansion by early 3rd millennium BCE; b) the earliest evidence of Turkic tongues as a separate group comes almost four millennia later in an early 8th century CE inscription found in Mongolia; c) the first reference to “Turks” appears in Chinese sources of the 6th century CE; d) Asia Minor was invaded by the Seljuks in the 11th century, ultimately resulting in permanent Turkic settlement in the peninsula.
● Above: a Hattian pair of long-horned bulls (copper,
c. 2300-2000 BCE)

• ⁽²⁾ This text makes clear that, according to Dilmen (and “linguists” à la turca), there are no Turkic languages; they are all Turkish dialects. He defined Yakut (or Sakha) as a dialect, although it is considered a language. Nationalist stranglehold on social sciences is very well known (Dilmen is a “very good” example). That’s why there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect. The most common and most purely linguistic criterion is that of mutual intelligibility. It seems logical but it’s deceptive and far from scientific:

• Once I was in Granada with two Italianas searching for a good place to listen to flamenco. I still remember my amazement when I heard the girls asking passers-by for information: they spoke Italian, the others answered in Spanish, and there was no problem of mutual intelligibility! What does that mean? That Italian and Spanish are dialects? If so, of what language?

• On the other hand, one day, while eating in the University Dining Hall, there were two Cypriots sitting at the same table opposite me and speaking their village vernacular. I understood zero, nil, nothing at all! Not even the topic of discussion! What does that mean? That Helladic Greek and Cypriot are not Hellenic dialects but separate languages?

İsmail Beşikçi and
the Kurdish Question

Since I don’t like to be branded as “nationalist”, I invoke a Turkish scientist in the true sense of the word, the sociologist İsmail Beşikçi, a man who’s spent most of his life in Turkish state prisons not because he has committed any crime, but because he’s had the courage to publicize his documented views. Beşikçi has been persecuted/prosecuted, just because he initially criticized (and polemicized later on) the Turkish ruling ideology as it was set forth in such “scientific” theses – and even more because he has studied in depth and wrote extensively about a taboo subject: the Kurdish question.⁽³⁾

Kurdish musicians (1890)

• ⁽³⁾ The on-going war between Turks and Kurds dates back to the “Turkish War of Independence”, which established a Turkish nationalist state that has repressed the human rights of Kurdish people. The Kurds felt betrayed because they had taken part in almost every “dirty job” of the Turks from the late 19th century to the 1910s, mainly in the first ethnic cleansings of the 20th century, as they thought that they “cleared” the place for themselves. The perpetrators of the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Genocides (1.5 million + 900.000 + 400.000 = almost 3 million dead) were Turks, Kurds, Arabs and Caucasian Muslims: in fact, it was the genocide of heterodox people by the Islamists. But the Turks were primarily nationalists; so, they also turned against the Kurds, who finally rebelled. Major historical events, before the PKK revolt, include the Koçgiri, Sheikh Said, Ararat, and Dersim rebellions (1920, 1925, 1930, and 1938).

• Note that Beşikçi was born a Turk, not a Kurd. So he deserves our admiration even more.

The citations quoted above (except that reference to Homer) are from Beşikçi’s Historical Thesis on Turkey / The Sun Language Theory and the Kurdish Question, which cost him three years in prison, since he was “reckless” enough not to deny the existence of a nation… The first thing he took into account was the nature of the positions adopted by Turkish “scientists”, under the “guidance” of Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), in 1930. Based on official documents, speeches and “scientific” theses, Beşikçi analyzed the formulation and development of the ideology of Kemalism, exposing its unscientific, racist and chauvinistic nature. In one of his numerous apologies (i.e. speeches in defense of himself), he attacked the official “Justice” of the Kemalist regime:

İsmail Beşikçi

“As a repressive state mechanism, this court threatens writers and intellectuals with imprisonment, favours police measures and secret trials, condemns scientific thought, prefers the secret services’ reports against truth and sociological findings, imposes verdicts without – at least – taking into account the defense of the accused and, using loopholes, accepts colonial oppression and tyranny, denying the reality of the existence of the Kurdish nation, something that is an objective fact above the will of people and institutions.

“This court essentially acts as an administrative and political body with a seemingly ‘independent function’ and ‘independent judgment’. It functions like the gendarmerie, police, national security service and other similar services, attempting to impose the hegemony of the official ideology through its verdicts. Rejecting an objective truth, your court is lying, considering the conclusions drawn by systematic societal research, the reliable knowledge, and the rights we advocate, as incriminating evidence.

“This court acts like the gendarmerie, police, national security
and other services, attempting to impose the hegemony
of the official ideology through its verdicts.” (İsmail Beşikçi)

Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk)

“In its verdicts regarding my books, your court states that ‘the sacred memory of Atatürk is stained’. What does that mean? It means that the Kurdish masses – men, women and children – will be continuously sent to exile, to the gallows, will be slaughtered, that laws and decrees will be shamelessly adopted on this logic – but anyone who criticizes such phenomena will be tried on the grounds of ‘libeling the sacred memory of Atatürk’. How can one consider genocide, exiles, the complete assimilation enforced in Kurdistan by the Kemalist regime as ‘sacred memory’? The division and partition of Kurdistan, the implementation of the tactics ‘divide and rule’ against the Kurdish nation, may be ‘sacred memory’ only for the imperialists and colonialists.

“The Turkish universities, on the other hand, as slaves of the official ideology, reject in principio scientific thought obscuring and denying the reality of the Kurdish nation. They consider the official ideology, which is based on fraud and indifference towards objectivity, as the only irresistible and definite reality. Thus they present this official ideology as scientific and legal. It is at this point that the ‘independent’ court and ‘independent’ judgment intervene, trying under threat of punishment to prevent any criticism of the university professors who, through political charlatanism, demand material and social privileges”…

This trial took place in 1979, just one year before the so-called “democracy” was overthrown in a coup of the army, the mighty pillar supporting at that time the regime. More trials and convictions preceded and followed for Beşikçi. Even if he could live two or three lives, he would not have time enough to serve the 200 plus years in prison imposed on him in total. Released in 1999, he was sent back to court in 2010 – that is, even after the collapse of Kemalism – for “propaganda” because of an article entitled The Rights of Nations to Self-Determination and the Kurds, which cost him 15 extra months in jail.

In January 1981, he sent a Letter to UNESCO from his prison, stigmatizing the decision of the Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization of the United Nations to declare that year as The Atatürk Year.⁽⁴⁾ A new conviction followed. Undeterred, he continued sending letters from the dungeons to international organizations that, of course, ended up in the hands of Turkish judges, who imposed new sentences. A letter to the Journalist Union of Switzerland e.g. cost him 10 years!

• ⁽⁴⁾ Note that: a) Kemal is the only person to receive such recognition by the UN “Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization”; b) education, science and culture have suffered much from his policies; c) the recipients of this recognition were, in fact, his heirs governing Turkey at the time: the military putschists; it was as if they were rewarded by UNSESCO for their… coup d’état in the previous year!

But even in his trials (where we lose count, indeed) with his apologies (several of these speeches were put together in his testimony, Defense), he persevered with remarkable courage and selflessness in order to defend the rights of the Kurdish people, relying on the public sense of justice; a sense that has ceased to govern the decisions or actions even of the “competent” international organizations.

We imagine spontaneously that we have before us İsmail B, personifying Josef K, Kafka’s main character in The Trial. But our association is rather incongruous: Beşikçi has not been a surreal figure of absurdist fiction but an indomitable hero of free thought and scientific knowledge, a symbol of our time – exactly because people like him are so rare today. However, he had the misfortune to be born in Turkey. Therefore, he will never be awarded a Nobel Prize!⁽⁵⁾

• ⁽⁵⁾ He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 but… what can one expect from a Nobel Committee that has awarded the prize to persons such as Henry Kissinger (1973), Menachem Begin (1978), Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres (1994), Barack Obama (2009), and the neo-liberal European Union (2012) – but has not honoured Mahatma Gandhi?

Âşık Veysel

I’m certainly not to blame for politicizing the issue of linguistics à la turca, as it is an issue profoundly political. Lay, if you will, the blame on Alain Gheerbrant who “cast the first stone” by paralleling Mustafa Kemal to Âşık Veysel (see Chronicle 9). No doubt, there are even worse cases. One thing is to credit “exclusively” the Turks with Anatolian music; another thing is to do the same with the music of Constantinople; especially if we bear in mind that the Ottomans described this music as Arabo-Persian; it was called Turkish, or even Ottoman, only after the Republic was established, with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire…

● There are cases of “friendly fire” on this issue, which is, nevertheless, anything but crucial. It’s just a matter of orderliness and correct terminology. See e.g. the starting point of Stéphane Yerasimos, the Greek-born director of the French Institute of Anatolian Studies, when he presented an album with old “Ottoman music” featuring, among others, compositions by Dimitrie Cantemir, who was anything but Ottoman:⁽⁶⁾

Cantemir on a Romanian stamp

• ⁽⁶⁾ Cantemir was a great intellectual (philosopher, musicologist, composer, linguist, ethnographer, geographer, historian), and prince of Moldavia where he learned Greek and Latin and acquired a profound knowledge of the classics. He lived in forced exile for 23 years in Constantinople, where he studied at the Patriarchate’s Greek Academy, wrote about music and also composed. How is it possible to classify his music as “Ottoman” when the composer also fought against the Ottomans as an ally of Peter the Great in the Russo-Ottoman War of 1710–11?

“This project of performing Ottoman music on original instruments”, Yerasimos wrote in the booklet, “arose from a simple question: why not apply the method that has been already successfully followed in Europe for several decades, and try to re-discover the spirit and the performing style of the Ottoman music of the great period – the 17th and 18th centuries?”

Constantinople / from Byzantium to Istanbul, by Stéphane Yerasimos

● The Empire that substituted the once powerful Byzantine Empire after its downfall was Ottoman, indeed, as it was controlled by this tribe. But is this sufficient reason to classify also the music of post-Byzantine Constantinople under the same heading? My objection is due to the explicitly ethnic import of the term Ottoman as it means Turkish. On the contrary, the term Byzantine is supranational, referring in general to “the eastern part of the Late Roman Empire that, after the fall of Rome, continued as its successor until 1453.” In both these empires, the Byzantine and Ottoman, culture was a collective work of all ethnicities living within their boundaries. Ethnic identities can be found only in cultures that have been cultivated by peoples distinguished for the originality of their contributions to human civilization. If e.g. there has been no Phoenician civilization, given that the Phoenicians were heavily influenced by the Egyptians, Mesopotamians and Hellenes, in the same way there’s been no Ottoman civilization either. Let alone that, compared to the Ottomans, the contribution of the Phoenicians, especially in the spread of the alphabet, has been far more important.

Christianism and Islam: Differences in Assimilation

QUITE DIFFERENT APPROACH ADOPTED ALAIN DANIÉLOU, Gheerbrant’s compatriot and namesake. As an adviser to UNESCO’s International Music Council, he supervised several outstanding recordings of world music, such as Unesco Collection: A Musical Anthology of the Orient; Musical Atlas; Musical Sources; and Anthology of Indian Classical Music / A Tribute to Alain Daniélou. As a producer of the Cairo recordings, Taqâsîm and Layâlî, on instrumental or vocal modal improvisations, he formulated a thought-provoking synopsis that begins as follows:

Alain Daniélou playing sitar (1987)

“The melodic system peculiar to the Arabic-speaking peoples of the countries bordering on the Eastern and Southern shores of the Mediterranean is the result of a long evolution. It derives from the adaptation by the Arab conquerors of the ancient Greek, Persian, and Egyptian systems, which gradually developed into a unified and highly original art.

“‘Until the 13th century the theorists refer to Greek theories, but subsequently there arose a distinctly independent theory and an art, cultivated at the court of the Caliphs, which became increasingly refined and elaborate. Until the end of the 19th century, this art continued to develop under the influence of fresh Persian and Byzantine elements, which had become more prominent owing to the Turkish domination’ (d’Erlanger).”

“The melodic system of the Arabic-speaking peoples of the Mediterranean derives from the adaptation of the ancient Greek, Persian, and Egyptian systems”… “Until the end of the 19th century, this art continued to develop under the influence of fresh Persian and Byzantine elements.”
(Alain Daniélou, Rodolphe d’Erlanger)

The conclusions we can draw are quite astonishing, indeed: until the eve of their empire’s downfall, the Ottomans – at least in the domain of music – were still under the influence of the empire they had abolished half a millennium before! It was natural that the Arabic-speaking peoples, then vassals of the Ottomans in the region, were equally influenced. In this way, the Byzantine echoe echoed and resonated throughout the Mediterranean: the Christians, mainly in the western part of mare nostrum, were influenced through Byzantine ecclesiastical chant, at least until the 11th century when, due to the Schism, Gregorian chant became obligatory for the Catholics; the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire in the Orient were also influenced – not by ecclesiastical chant, of course, but by the erstwhile Byzantine secular music.

Lady With Tambourine, oil painting, Qajar period, Iran

Persian influences may be considered natural, because the Iranians had already realized their self-determination, having their own independent state. But what can anybody say about Byzantine music, especially secular, which – supposedly – ceased to exist as soon as the state that gave birth to it was erased from the map? How could it possibly influence the Mediterranean on the eve of the 20th century, and even impregnate it with “fresh” musical elements?

Trying to resume what Alain Daniélou and Rodolphe d’Erlanger have said, and the thoughts they have induced, we can imagine a historical model as follows: the Arabs (those coming from the Arabian Peninsula) were cultivated adopting the ancient Hellenic, Persian, and Egyptian cultures. They knew, therefore, very well that their empire would not last long if they were not able to assimilate the civilized Mediterranean peoples they had conquered. It was an indispensable prerequisite to safeguard their caliphate and stay in charge.

The Arabs knew their empire would not last long if they did not assimilate the ancient peoples they had conquered. This could only happen through religion (Islam) and language (Arabic), breaking the ties of these peoples with their glorious past. All they needed was a combination of incentives and coercion.

Under the circumstances, this could only happen through religion, first of all, and secondarily (but equally important), language. It was absolutely necessary for the Arabs to break the ties of these ancient peoples with their glorious past, making them convert to Islam and (even better) adopt Arabic. Hence they could exert undisputed control over their vast empire. A combination of incentives and coercion was all they needed. It was a rather moderate tactic compared with the one endorsed by the Christians to convert the Hellenes, unleashing an outright violent campaign, a long, widespread genocide (see Chronicles 23-24, The Genocide of the Hellenes and The Triumph of Cretinism).

When the Ottomans took over the Caliphate, they also adopted Arabic culture that had sprung out like an amalgam from these ancient civilizations. Note that this synthesis started bearing fruit only in the 13th century, after Constantinople fell for the first time to the Crusaders and Venetians in 1204. No similar cultural renaissance took place during the Ottoman period. That’s why there were still “fresh Persian and Byzantine elements” into the Court music and art until the last days of the Ottoman Empire. What exactly was the Ottoman contribution? It was not so much musical but mainly political – through this wide, unified area – allowing these “elements” to have a great impact on every corner of the empire.

Arabic Music Schools – Turkish Music

Salah el Mahdi

ACCORDING TO THE TUNISIAN PROFESSOR Salah el Mahdi, who spoke at the International musicological symposium at Delphi on Rhythms, Modes and Scales of Mediterranean Music in 1988,⁽⁷⁾ the Near East was influenced by the “old Turco-Byzantine music, extending to the Balkans and Caucasus”:

• ⁽⁷⁾ The European Cultural Centre of Delphi’s English text concerning this International Meeting renders the Greek musical term τρόπος (mode) as… manner. Unfortunately, no one there noticed it to correct it…

“Arabic culture is an integral and significant part of Mediterranean culture”, he said. “The modes of Arabic music are classified into four major schools:

“a) The Maghreb School; it is represented by the Arabo-Andalusian musical heritage introduced into this area by the Arabo-Andalusian refugees in the 14th and 15th centuries. This music survives today across North Africa, along with the old music of the Libyan people of this region.^(h)

• ^(h) Ancient Libya: The name referred to a) the region west of the Nile Valley, corresponding more or less to the modern Maghreb (North Africa except Egypt); b) the country immediately west of Egypt; or c) to the whole of Africa that was still more or less a terra incognita. Herodotus wrote that the Phoenicians carried out the first periplus of “Libya” (Africa) on behalf of the Egyptians. Talking about the Libyan people, Mahdi most probably referred to the Berbers and the rest of the Maghrebis.

“b) The Near East School; it is represented by the musical heritage of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and, of course, Egypt. In part, this school has influenced Libya and Tunisia, which thus participate in two schools, as they are found in between. The Near East School has been influenced by the old Turco-Byzantine music, extending to the Balkans and Caucasus.

“c) The Arabo-Persian School; it is represented by the Abbasid musical heritage that was created in their great capital, Baghdad. It’s been the musical act in Iraq, Iran and all the [former] Soviet Republics of Central Asia as far as China.

“d) The Arabian Peninsula School; it includes Saudi Arabia, Yemen, all the Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman, and has had a twofold influence: from India and Africa.”

Now that we are sufficiently informed, and also have the necessary standard of comparison, we may have some fun enjoying Bernard Mauguin’s sophistries:

“Born in the shadow of Islam, Turkish classical music has been confused early in its history with art music of Persia and the Arab peoples. This common origin has been the cause of a persistent misunderstanding and, in general, little distinction is made between these various musical forms, which are usually grouped together under the vague heading of ‘Oriental music’…

“However, just as a knowledgeable listener can easily distinguish a work of Bach from a work of Berlioz, he could never confuse the playing of a Turkish musician with that of an Arab or an Iranian musician. Classical Turkish music has its own distinct personality”…

Johann Sebastian Bach

Wow! We are talking about such colossal differences: those between Bach and Berlioz! Who would have the guts to disagree? But these are differences of eras, between two composers (one baroque, the other romantic) who created in the same tradition of Occidental “classical” music during the so-called common practice period (baroque, classical, romantic). Racial differences (i.e. German vs. French) were rather insignificant. The same applies to the distinction among Turkish, Arab and Iranian musicians: their main difference, especially before the creation of national states, was also a difference of eras. If Mauguin compared Bach not with Berlioz but with Brahms, he would have noticed that they too are “easily distinguishable”. However, such a comparison between two composers of common origin (both Bach and Brahms were Germans) would have deprived him of any pretext for his chicaneries.

Bach vs. Berlioz: not German vs. French music but
baroque vs. romanticism (plus genius vs. average…)

No doubt that if instead of Western theorists we had their Oriental colleagues, things might have been even worse, since everyone would have “trumpeted one’s own merchandise”. Salah in Delphi e.g. spoke of Turco-Byzantine music because he was not a Turk; that’s why he gave no due emphasis to the role of Persian music theorists, something that the Iranian Hormoz Farhat did; but he in turn “forgot” the contribution of Byzantine musicians, which Simon Karás put forward at the forefront – and so on…

What the Orient needs is an era of Renaissance and Enlightenment – sine qua non – something that the Occident intentionally obstructs for its own interests. These interests, I’m afraid, are served, consciously or not, by those Western theoreticians who can’t see the forest for the trees (or, if you like, focus on the finger and can’t see it’s pointing to the moon), i.e. focusing on the secondary (the local differences in music), and minimizing the primary (its common features). The classic recipe: divide et impera! Or rather: διαίρει καὶ βασίλευε, as the one who first adopted this tactic was probably Philip of Macedon…

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Next Chronicle 11. “MUSIC IS THRACIAN AND ASIAN” ● “Barbarian” Contribution to Hellenic Instrument Making and Playing ● Antiquarianism-Ancestor Worship ● Multi-String Instruments and Psalteries ● Diapason, Harmony, Polyphony ● Music, Poetry, Nation ● Folk and Erudite Music ● Hydraulis ● Crusades ● Strabo on Music