As in the history of every state, thousands of people in the Ottoman Empire died in the clutches of an executioner; While some of them paid the penalty for their crimes with their lives, some of them became the victims of an intrigue, and some of them were killed by groaning under torture.
Most of the death sentences in the Ottoman Empire were applied as a result of murder, banditry, rebellion and political crimes. We know it’s a little scary, but let’s look at how the execution, which is one of the unknown or overlooked aspects of the state, was applied.
Let’s start with one of the most controversial issues. Political reasons were the most vocal cause of execution.
This provision belongs only to the sultan and is defined as “sa’i bi’l-fesâd”. When this practice is left aside, the crime of ‘murder’ stands out as the most common reason for execution. Political prisoners were strangled with an oily lasso, and after their execution, their heads were separated from their bodies with a sharp razor called the “cipher”. This head was then placed on a warning stone or thrown in front of the “Bab-ı Hümayun”, the great door of the palace.
In order not to spoil the shape of the cut head, it was placed in a bag full of honey and taken to the presence of the sultan. For this reason, the head and body of some personalities were buried in separate places.
Perhaps the only difference of the Ottoman Empire from other states at that time was that it bound torture to certain laws.
The II. In Beyazıt’s General Code, it was stated in detail in which situations and to whom torture would be perpetrated. In practice, no distinction was made between men and women, and torture was used as both an investigation and an execution method.
For example, we come across a law regarding the castration of the rapist in Article 26 of Bayezid’s General Law: “The genitals of those who kidnap a boy or a girl and rape should be cut off.”
Thieves were hanged in the neighborhood where the crime was committed and even on the door of the house, shop or inn they entered.
The crime of theft was a very common crime in the Ottoman Empire. The penalty for this was death, especially this practice was made for criminals and night thieves.
Janissary revolts had become a very challenging problem in a certain period of the state.
Sipahi and janissaries were decapitated and thrown into the sea with stones tied to their bodies. During the revolt, the grand vizier and the ulema class, who were convicted by the janissaries, were stabbed in the streets or in front of the palace; they were usually hung on the trees in the Horse Square. Reşad Ekrem Koçu relates the death of Musa Çelebi in the 1632 Janissary revolt as follows:
“They took Musa Çelebi to the top of the stairs. The Pasha had warned his masters, one of them hit Musa Çelebi with a strong shoulder and threw him down the stairs. The lad’s shriek of pain and horror is indescribable. Musa Çelebi had not yet surrendered his soul. They swept the seriously injured young man over the wall of the palace as if he were a rag sack, and threw him out to the side of the square, where once again a dagger was placed on him. After stripping him naked, they left his bloody body under a plane tree in Horse Square. The non-stop falling snow became the shroud of the innocent youth.”
Hook, cross and stake, here are the most feared forms of execution in the Ottoman Empire:
Of course, these forms of execution were not applied to everyone, and this required extraordinary events. Pirates were executed with hooks, and those who acted as spies were executed with the cross. While returning from the Mediterranean, the captains brought a group of captive pirates, and some of these captives were hung from the masts of the galleys. Those executed by hanging were comparatively more fortunate; because other pirates were punished with hooks.
Çengel was in Eminönü, Istanbul.
There were hooks made of thick planks, large and long, with their heads curved upwards and pointed, in the shape of a sharp comb. Those who were sentenced to this punishment would be tied up with thick ropes, naked, with their hands and feet tied over their backs, and suddenly left on the hook.
Those punished by the cross were likewise robbed and bound face down.
In the crucifixion, the shoulders and buttocks of the prisoner were carved with a knife, and oil candles were sewn to these carved parts and burned. He was then driven around the city on a camel, tied to the cross.
Towards the end of the 16th century, Bostancıbaşı Ferhat Ağa issued a one-time “cannon penalty”.
According to Reşat Ekrem Koçu, he was a janissary who received this punishment and his crime was an act that did not fit the hearth. It is said that he kidnapped the wife of an imam and cut her hair; just like he was in a male form. When both of them are caught in a coffee house in Üsküdar, they are taken to the police station and the woman is sentenced to death for the crimes of escaping to another man while she was married and disguising herself as a boy. Ferhat Ağa did not consider the punishments we counted for the janissary sufficient, and stripped the janissary naked and had his knuckles broken with an iron hammer. Then the janissary, who was wrapped in a mortar, was shattered on the spot.
When a statesman was sentenced to death, the sentence was carried out with respect.
The edict issued against a statesman is given to him by the bostancıbaşı; His skirt was kissed and that person was respected. He was even allowed to perform ablution and pray after words of consolation were spoken. This decision was met with fortitude by the statesmen.
It is said that Kara Mustafa Pasha of Merzifon, who was executed in Belgrade after the Siege of Vienna, helped the executioner by removing the rugs in his room and raising his long beard with his hand, saying “let my body fall to the ground” after he had prayed.
There were also death sentences without executioners.
These types of executions are also called “stoning” or “stoning”. Although this punishment was applied to women who were learned to have relations with a non-Muslim man, only one woman was sentenced to this punishment during the Imperial period. Executioners bury the woman in the ground up to her chest with her arms inside, and are booed by the people and showered with stones. The old muverrihs also used to call this language “don’t waste it”.
“If the Sultan does not exist, the fault will not come from the executioner.”
Among the most famous executioners in Ottoman history were Kara Ali in the 17th century, his sidekick Hammal Ali, and Süleyman, who was known as the chief executioner. Evliya Çelebi describes Kara Ali as follows: “The master of this branch is the perfect Kara Ali, who rolled up his hoods, put the tigi firetab on his belt, hanged other torture tools on his belt, tucked axes that would break hands and feet, adorned his belts with his patchwork tools, and decorated their belts with bare-sword roller revels. They pass by saying that neuzübillah are poisoned men whose faces have no light left…”
We should know that the people who perform this task are not just executioners.
Sources say that gypsies have been the executioners in the Ottoman Empire for a long time. They served under the command of Bostancıbaşı, and the verdict about the person to be executed was personally notified to Bostancıbaşı. Executioners were chosen from those who were both mute and deaf. The reason for this is that the victim did not come to mercy by hearing their pleas and cries; it was so that he would not reveal the confidentiality of his work by voicing it.
With the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid, the tradition of having an executioner in the palace was ended; The Executioners’ Hearth was buried in the dusty pages of history over time. If one day you pass by Eyüp and stop by Pierre Loti, you can go a few hundred meters further and go to Karyağdı Baba Tomb and come across one of the quietest and most remote cemeteries, namely the executioner’s graves.
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