The Egyptian players’ performances

 

33a

 

32b

Still acting as the sultan’s deputy, the grand vizier repaired to the observation tent and gave the command for the performances to begin. A troupe of Egyptian performers marched in and put on an incredible display of amazing acts.

In (32b) we see the sultan seated on a carpet beneath an awning. (Levni is again at variance with Vehbi: according to the latter's account, the sultan was not present.) İbrahim Pasha is seated beneath another awning at the left. In the center foreground, Hajji Şahin is getting ready to leap through a hoop fitted with daggers that is being held by two assistants on the peak of a camel’s hump. The scene is completed with a sacker, two bostanjis, and a handful of functionaries. In (33a) we see the grand vizier’s steward Mehmed Agha and various others watching other performances that were put on this day. In the center foreground, one acrobat supports a second who stands on the shoulders of the first while carrying a huge earthenware jar on his head. Left of center, another performer balances sixteen glass vases on two boards and a wooden tray set on his head as he dances along. In the lower left corner, one man spins around with two others linking their legs around his waist. (According to Vehbi, their ankles were tied to each other.) Vehbi describes the two performances at the left thus:

Across two wooden planks set parallel to one another he placed four swords with the sharp edges of their blades facing upward so that they resembled an iron bridge. He then trod fearlessly upon them and stood there. Next he braced the points of three gleaming swords that were as sharp as a surgeon’s knife against his belly after which he boldly bent his body to the left and right and performed countless other amazing movements. Next he stood on his hands with his feet in the air and then stretched out with his back on the swords and then rolled over onto the ground on his side and picked up each one of the blades. After this he tossed two stones the size of a child’s ball into the air one by one and caught them now with his head and shoulders now with his hand and made them travel over his legs, back, and chest using the organs of his body like a crook to catch the stones and keep them from falling to the ground. Finally he stacked cups atop one another inside a hoop so that they filled it up half way. He filled them with water and then demonstrated his fluid dexterity turning the hoop into a revolving flame by spinning it rapidly and fearlessly yet without dropping a single cup or spilling a single drop.

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