Women’s Rights

Turkish law provides complete equality for men and women. A man may have only one wife and women have equal rights with respect to inheritance and in other spheres of social life. This is in sharp contrast with the Moslem code which allows a husband to have four wives, recognizes the testimony of two women as being equal to a single man, and gives daughters only half as much as sons in inheritance.

Turkish women received the right to vote and the right to be elected to office in 1934, before Swiss, Greek, French and Italian women. Currently, Turkey has several female members of Parliament, mayors and governors. Tansu Ciller, a 46 year old professor of economics, became Turkey’s first female Prime Minister in 1993.

By the second half of the third millennium BCE, a highly developed civilization characterized by a high level of craftsmanship in metals of all kinds was already in existence in Anatolia . Assyrian merchants were selling tin and clothing in the area in exchange for gold and silver, establishing trading colonies, and had introduced cuneiform script and the Assyrian language to the indigenous Hittite culture.

The Hittites

Knowledge of writing, organizing trade and public administration allowed the Hittite culture to emerge. Cities were built with large public building: palaces and temples. Cuneiform tablets have been discovered that document complicated business agreements, and also contain literary works and school exercise texts. The Hittite empire expanded, eventually extending into Syria and Egypt and lasting until around 1200 BCE when sea peoples from the west overran and burned down the capital city.

While the "Hittite style" flourished, cities were built with fortified walls, town squares, and streets with channels. Figurative art and ceramics rose to new levels of creativity. Ivory statuettes of fertility goddesses, sphinxes, eagles in flight, animals lying down and rock crystal statuettes of lions have been discovered by archaeologists. Vessels, cosmetic boxes, and stamp seals have also been found. Significantly, these items are decorated with Anatolian style motifs: animals; the Anatolian goddess and her consort; the chief god, and their children. In this way we have learned about ancient Hittite religious practices.

Today, the visitor can walk on the remnants of the streets, temples and palaces built over 3000 years ago. A huge outdoor temple has friezes carved into its rock walls depicting the goddess, her consort and children, a Hittite king, and his procession of priests and warriors. At the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, fine examples of statuary, ceramics and stone carvings are displayed.

-- Özgüç, T. The Hittites. Ankara: Museum of Anatolian Civilizations

The Philosopher and the Skipper
a Sufi tale from Rumi (1207-1273)

Ali was a philosopher who thought he knew all there was to know. Everyone agreed that he had a broad knowledge of the sciences and the arts, yet he insisted on bragging to one and all that he was the smartest man in town. Ali’s’ friends were bothered by this arrogance and tried to make Ali see the world around him with open eyes. The efforts, however, were unproductive, so Ali’s friends encouraged him to go on a sea voyage. Such a trip would expose Ali to difficulties that he would otherwise not experience. Ali liked the idea and the arrangements were made.

Once at sea, Ali talked only about philosophy with the sailors. The skipper listened patiently for a while without saying a word, but finally interrupted to complain that he was bored by this talk.

"Do you know anything about philosophy?" Ali asked.

"I’m afraid not," the skipper replied.

" What a shame," said Ali, shaking his head, "for half of your life has been wasted, not having such knowledge." The skipper let that comment go unanswered and kept busy steering the ship.

They sailed for days. Ali was enjoying himself, talking most of the time. He was so busy explaining his ideas on how governments should run their countries and how leaders should address different problems that he did not bother to learn anything about sailing. Even when they cast anchor alongside a small island, Ali did not take advantage of the calm waters to ask for swimming lessons. Neither did he care to ask his sailor friends any questions about their life at sea.

The next night, while they were in mid-ocean, heading back home, the captain started to get worried. There were unmistakable signs that a storm was on the way. The crew prepared to face the emergency. Only Ali remained calm in his cabin, his mind occupied with loftier matters.

The wind blew hard, wresting control of the ship from the captain’s hands. The sailors, panicking, were thrown from side to side as the vessel pitched in the swells. There was so much water on deck from the heavy rain and giant waves that the ship was riding noticeably lower in the water. The skipper shouted for the crew to prepare to abandon ship.

The ship’s only lifeboat was lowered into the water, and soon it became obvious that it would not hold all the men. The skipper and several sailors were preparing to jump into the open sea and take their chances swimming. It was then that the skipper remembered Ali. He asked one of the sailors to find him.

Ali was holding onto his cabin door, trying to maintain his balance. The sailor screamed at him. "Hurry up, we must abandon the ship, it is sinking!" Ali, confused, was helped to the deck.

The skipper hollered, "Do you know how to swim?"

"No!" Ali shouted back.

The skipper shook his head, "What a shame for all of your life has been wasted, not having such knowledge."

The skipper and his crew were saved that night by another vessel after the storm subsided. Even Ali was rescued, with the help of some sailors who kept him afloat. From that day on, not a peep was heard from Ali about his vast knowledge of philosophy.

A few years after the incident, Ali presented a gift to the skipper, who was now a close friend. It was a framed painting of a ship in a stormy sea. A couplet was inscribed beneath the picture:

Only empty objects remain on top of the water.

Become empty of human attributes, and you will float on the ocean of creation.

--M. Bayat and M. A. Jamnia. Tales from the Land of the Sufis. Boston: Shambala, 1994.