Dalton Morris

The Diary of an everyday mustache twirler

Ihsan Turjman was a soldier conscripted into the Ottoman Imperial Army in 1914 during

the first World War, while he was not a foot soldier for long before he was sent to be a clerk in

Jerusalem he still documented the effects of the war not only to himself but his people and city in

his diary. His documentation of the war and his struggles with many complications gives us an

insight into his life and how daily life was in the Ottoman army. With his upbringing from a

middle class family, Ihsan was a very educated individual considering this occurred during a

period of mass illiteracy1 which helped bring us the diary of his experiences. Ihsan was merely

trying to survive until the end of the war so he could marry his one true love, Thurayya2 and go

to Europe to further his education after the war. Ihsan was quite against the war and conscription

in general, a good example of this is his thoughts after hearing of rebellion in Medina, asking

how they can support the state after it killed their best youth for simply demanding their rights

and questioning the conscription.3 Turjmans role as clerk for the Commissariat of the Fourth

Imperial Army under the command of Ruen Bey4 was one that he enjoyed, as it kept him off of

the frontlines and he did not really do much other than reviewing petitions for exemptions of

service and filing documents; he even admits that most of the time he sat there playing with his

moustache.5 With Ihsans detailed accounts of his daily life, we can track significant moments

not only in his life, but also in the world around him to see their social impacts.

As I read Turjmans diary, I began to notice the distinct mentioning of the

treatment of women and womens rights and equality. Turjman supported women being

emancipated from their oppression and giving women a proper education. He even stated that the

veil is an obstacle to her advancement, but removing that veil too quickly would damage the

movement to improve womens status.6 However the quote that stands out the most to me is his
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quote stating that it is impossible for the Ottoman nation to reach a civilized status if only the

men are educated.7 Gender roles during this time period were much less rigid than surrounding

nations, while their roles in society varied; women still faced social pressures to conform to

traditions but they were not forced in any way to represent the devout islamic woman.8 During

this war period, women finally removed their veils, began participating in the growing secular

public culture and even began to join the common workforce.9 Some women during this time had

to resort to prostitution to make any money, Ihsan had an interesting encounter with a prostitute

where he explains his feelings about the profession. He quotes What miserable creatures,

selling their bodies for pennies to satisfy the bestial needs of men.10 stating how sad it is that

they are selling themselves just to survive, only supplied by mans need for intimacy and

affection. He later goes on to state how men are the source of all womens misery,11 with the

implication that these prostitutes are miserable and could be doing much more than prostitution

with their lives but they cannot. Turjman states how he pities the condition of the Muslim woman

in his time, while he addresses the fact that most women on earth at the time were oppressed and

disliked but the stronger feeling of those emotions towards Muslim women.12

While women had rights they still had little freedoms, they were victim to many social

injustices. Ihsans account of the women being beaten and removed from the plaza of the Haram

compound was one that I felt touched him deeply as he saw the injustice firsthand. After

witnessing the event he thanks god for not creating him as a woman for he does not know what

he would have done if he was. 13 I feel that events like these lead to the disapproval of social

treatment of women in the area at the time. Even in Egypt there were women who decided they

were going to attempt defer from the typical social practices. An example of this type of woman

was Mme Rushdi, the first wife of Husain Rushdi Pasha. She was a mistress of a salon, where
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women were allowed to discuss freely; mostly about social practices, especially veiling. Mme

felt that the veil stood in front of womens advancement.14 In that quote I see a direct connection

to Ihsan Turjmans quote about women being held back by their veil and how to advance they

must get rid of the veil along with receiving an education. Both of these points were evidence in

the area of equality for women and their growth not only through education but socially as well.

Mme Rushdi also published writings towards the backwardness of Egyptian women, stating

that their backwardness resulted from the persistence of certain social customs.15 This shows that

around the time that women in America and Europe were striving for more rights and liberties,

the middle east was also fighting for those same equalities. Ihsans teacher Sakakini was very

impactful in his life, not only educationally but also in the ideological manner as well; impacting

the way Turjman thought about nationalism and views on women.16 Ihsan Turjmans views on

women and their fight to gain rights was that there was fight against the Turkish CUP

dictatorship, he said this after the government banned all dramatic plays in public schools.17

Nearing the end of Turjmans diary, he has multiple encounters with an Albanian

officer, who makes multiple homosexual requests and offers to Ihsan. Who upon hearing this for

the first time became very angry, stating that he wanted to beat the Albanian up18. His next

reaction however, surprised me. When the officer dismisses him, he considers what his next

options are, and the first that comes to his head is suicide. His other options were to tell his uncle

or his commander about the officer, but it seemed that he was too embarrassed to even do that.19 I

feel that this blatantly represents the social stigma towards homosexuality during this time in not

only Jerusalem but all of Palestine as well. That when being harassed by another male sexually

the first two thoughts through his head were suicide or embarrassment to tell an authoritative

figure. Ihsan, a straight male who had a devout love for one woman, who was already depressed
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due to the state of the war was then being forced to deal with this harassment or be punished by

that officer. With the pressure from the officer growing, adding unneeded stress to his already

depleting mental state, Ihsan is put into a corner, and he finally tells his uncle all that the

Albanian has done towards him. However once there is an opportunity for Ihsan to tell the

commander, he wants to delay the meeting as he thought the Albanian was beginning to behave

properly.20 This is where Turjmans story ends as he was rumored to have been killed by an

Ottoman officer. However this social stigma towards homosexuality confuses me a bit, seeing as

the Tanzimat reforms decriminalized homosexuality in the Ottoman Empire in 1858. This shows

the great progress achieved by the Ottoman empire by conquering the component of change of

sexuality decades before other middle eastern nations. Which leads me to a connection to todays

culture and time, homosexuality is legal, they can even get married, yet there is still somewhat of

a negative social stigma floating around that has not went away.

Overall, Turjmans diary was quite useful as a primary source document. It not

only filled to the brim with small historical information that might not have been available

otherwise, it also gave an opinionated view of a common Ottoman soldier in World War I. The

usefulness of diaries as primary sources are that not only are they an opinion of an individual in

the time you are looking at, but you can also read how their actions were influenced by

surrounding stimuli and situations to try to understand why they did what they did. Diaries are

fantastic primary sources for historians to understand the emotions of everyday citizens during a

time period instead of how the upper class who wrote it felt. I feel this type of source gives you a

personal connection to your topic better than you could have gotten with just a history book with

dates and facts. However a large drawback to this type of primary source is that sometimes the

opinions can lead to flawed facts or severe bias that is not the same thought of the general
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population. This bias could lead to clouding of actual facts, the ebellishment of the truth to make

the author sound more like a victim, which then makes all information used by historians seem

somewhat unreliable. I feel that the drawbacks to using diaries as primary sources is outweighed

by their individuality and personal feel compared to how the government history books kept

history. Turjmans diary is quite unique, as it is from the observations from a common foot

soldier, instead of any of the diaries or chronicles which were authored by political leaders21 who

could manipulate the information in their stories to tell it how they wanted the situation to seem.
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Endnotes
1. Tamari, Salim. Year of the locust: a soldier's diary and the erasure of Palestine's
Ottoman past. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015.
2. Turjman 16
3. Turjman 155
4. Turjman 92
5. Turjman 92
6. Turjman 113
7. Turjman 113
8. Gelvin, James L. The modern Middle East: a history. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2016. Page 111
9. Turjman 11
10. Turjman 114
11. Turjman 114
12. Turjman 95
13. Turjman 95
14. Huda Shaarawi, Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist(1879-
1924), trans. And ed. Margot Badran (New York: The Feminist Press at the City
University of New York, 1986), pp. 76-81 Pg 177-178
15. Shaarawi pp.76-81
16. Turjman 39
17. Turjman 55
18. Turjman 157
19. Turjman 157
20. Turjman 160
21. Turjman 25