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41a |
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40b |
The Artillerymen’s revolving fortress drawn by a mechanical elephant
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41a |
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40b |
The sultan accompanied by his three sons appears and surrounded by pages and servants appears in the upper part of (40b) while the grand vizier is seated left and slightly below center. The green-robed figure standing next to him is his steward Mehmed Agha. In the foreground we see two dwarves, members of the palace’s Seferli ("Campaign") corps, which included mutes, as well as musicians, painters, poets, singers, wrestlers, barbers, and similar service personnel. As in the preceding two pages, the action is confined to the left-hand image (41a):
A revolving model of a fortress that had been built by the artillery-men made its appearance. It fully resembled a real fortress with its own suburb, ditch, redoubt, palisade, munitions and other defenses that made it an impregnable citadel. It was sat on wheels like a cart and pulled with ropes. The fortress’s outer walls turned in one direction like the ever-revolving sky while its stronghold spun around rapidly in the other direction like the gear of a clock. Its huge bulk, as massive as a mountain, stood upon a single shaft, rather like an elephant stuck on a rhinoceros’s horn. Despite the great number of mechanisms, implements, and men that it contained, they easily moved the fortress up hill and down dale as it whirled rapidly around like a
gauze shade on a lamp.Besides this they had also built another great contraption that looked like a terrifying elephant. It was as big as a steadfast mountain and each of its legs resembled an indestructible pillar. They had bound the fortress to the shoulders of the elephant by means of stout ropes so that it seemed as if the elephant was pulling the fortress: for as the elephant advanced so did the fortress. The ramparts and bastion of the fortress were adorned with red flags and decorated with pictures of mounted horsemen and other images and embellishments.
The fortress came to a halt in the field before the sultan whereupon:
It stood there inert like an unshakable earthwork as massive as the Caucasus. Like soldiers in battle, fearless heroes from the Imperial Arsenal surrounded the fortress, their eyes fixed ardently upon it and ready to fight. They encircled that bright-cheeked fiery beauty like a belt encloses a waist and as they enveloped the skirt of the wall endeavoring to open the quite obstinate button in the collar of the sturdy door with the sharp point of the sword, the smoke from the guns and cannons fired from within the fortress shrouded its wall like a curtain so that they were unable to attain the happiness of even seeing the fortress much less gain entrance to it. Many times they lit the fire of war and combat and turned the festival-ground into the field of Judgment Day. But the battle-composition reached its coda with the refrain:
Enough, hard-hearted
infidel! Enough! / Let what is yours be yours and what is mine be mine.Thereupon the sword of war reentered its scabbard. As cannon-shots signifying the fortress’s deliverance resounded, everyone retired to his own place on the festival-ground.
1. Gauze shade on a lamp: Fanus-i hayal. A painted gauze lampshade that revolves with the heat of its lamp.
2. Infidel:
The defenders of the fortress are dressed in European fashion and, like the marching members of the Arsenal corps in (39a) were probably also forsas: captive Christian sailors who were put to work as galley slaves or as workmen in the Arsenal. An interesting point is that this staged battle is allowed to end in a draw.Return to
Surname-i Vehbi indexReturn to
Kanyak's Doghouse
