The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-09
TURKISH HAREM STORY.
Sultan's Loss in the Death of Yaver-
Aga. Chief of the Eunuchs

ST. LOUIS Feb. S.-An exclusive cable
gram to the Globe-Democrat from Vienna
says: Abdul Hamid has just sustained a Sc
we're loss through the sudden death of
Yaver-Aga, the kizlar agassy or chief of the
eunuchS, of the imperial seraglio, who
throughout the present reign has been one
of the most influential figures in Turkish
politics, a parsonage to whose advice many
of the most shrewd and clever devices of
the Sultan in dealing with the foreign DOW
ers We're justly attributed. By virtue of his
strange office he was entitled to be adj
dressed as your Highness, and ranked i'm
mediately next to the grand vizier, and be-
fore either the Cabinet ministers or the
great military dignitaries even Khedive
Abbas of Egypt and Prince Ferdinand of
Bulgaria the latter in his capacity of Tur-
kish governor general of Eastern Roumelia
being compelled at Constantinople to yield
the pas to the hideousy ugly monster, for
Yaver-Aga was frightful to behold, being
almost six feet six inches high, coal black
with a small head, narrow shoulders an
enormous stomach and the squeaky and
shrill voice peculiar to his class His Off
cial title was that of Keeper of the deys
of paradise the Oriental idea of paradise
being a place peopled with hours as lovely
Yaver-Aga has been for the past two and
twenty years in absolute control of the
latter, the despotic master of the whole fem
mime portion of the household of the Sultan
and responsible to the latter for the safe
keeping and fidelity and the discipline of
every one of the women, no matter whether
Sultannas or mere odalisques. He was prob
ably the only man in the whole of the OF
toman empire whom the Padishah implicit
~ trusted, and whose advice was usually
directed against the European powers va
Nef-Aga was a MOhammedan of the most
Ianatlc ana blgoted type, and there is much
dL COnStdntlnOple to indicate that he was
one of the principal instigators of the Ar
menlan massacres. AS chief eunuch of the
harem, it was his duty to attend to the
punishment of those women who had Of
Tended the Sultan, and many hundreds of
falr ones have, by his directions, been sown
into sacks and pitched, under the cover of
night. into the swift-howing waters of the
BOSphoruS.
There are several hundred eunuchs en-
ployed in the imperial seraglio, two-thirds
OF them coal black and the remainder
ury which is slowly but surely disappear
ing from modern Mohammedan life as is
also polygamy, most of the leading 1ur-
klsh dlgn1tarieS, pashaS and beys at Con-
stantinople nowadays contenting them
selves with one wife, by which matrimonial
rule they not only comply with the require
avoid ali those harem intrigues. iealousies
and disputes that constitute the curse of
domestic life in MOhammedan countries
married daughter, Princess Zekte, has been
nominated to succeed Yaver-Aga as the
second dignitary of the realm. Yaver's
colossal fortune, part of which he owed to
per cent. on everything entering and leav-
ing the seraglio, and to the costly gifts he
received from native and foreign dignita-
ries, has been confscated by the Sultan.
the Aga having left no heirs.