Chapter 9 White Castle 7

7(1) I saved up some money, which I stole bit by bit from Hoja by chance, and of course I earned it here and there.I hid the money in a sock in the cupboard, with the books Hoja no longer read.I took the money out of the cupboard before leaving the house.Driven by curiosity, I took the money and went into Hoja's room.He was asleep, sweating profusely, with the oil lamp still on.I was amazed that the mirror was so small, and it frightened me all night with its uncanny resemblance that I could never fully believe.I didn't touch anything and left the house quickly.As I walked down the deserted streets nearby, a breeze blew, and I felt the urge to wash my hands, knowing where I was going, and being content.Walking down peaceful streets at dawn, walking down hills leading to the sea, stopping at a fountain to wash my hands, and admiring the view of the Golden Horn gave me a sense of well-being.

I first heard about the island from a young monk who came to Istanbul from Hebeli.When we met in Galata, he enthusiastically described the beauty of the islands to me.I must have been impressed because when I left the place I knew this was where I was going.The ferryman and the fisherman with whom I negotiated the fare offered sky-high prices for taking me to the island.I began to think dejectedly, they knew I was a fugitive, they would betray me, and hand me over to the pursuers sent by Hoja!Later I thought it was because they looked down on Christians who were afraid of the plague, so they took a threatening attitude.Trying not to attract attention, I settled the ferry with the second boatman who negotiated the price.He was not a strong man, and spent less energy rowing than talking about the plague, and the evil it came to punish.Besides, he said, it was useless to try to flee to that island to escape the plague.When he talks about these topics, I know he must be as scared as I am.The trip took six hours.

It wasn't until later that I thought of my time on the island as a happy time.I paid a little money to a lonely Greek fisherman for lodging in his house.Since I don't feel very safe yet, I try not to show my face.Sometimes I thought Hoja was dead; sometimes I thought he would send for me.There are many Christians like me who have come to escape the plague on the island, but I don't want them to see me. Every morning, I would go out to sea with the fisherman and return home in the evening.For a while, I was passionate about harpooning lobsters and crabs.If the weather was too bad for fishing, I would walk around the island, and sometimes I would go to the monastery garden and sleep peacefully under the vines.There is a gazebo propped up by a fig tree, from which you can overlook the Hagia Sophia when the weather is good.I would sit in the shade of the gazebo and gaze at Istanbul, or daydream for hours on end.Once, when I came to this island in a dream, I saw dolphins and Hoja swimming beside the boat.He made friends with them, and asked about me, and he came after me.Another time, I dreamed that my mother was with them, and they were blaming me and asking me why I was late.When I wake up sweating from the sun on my face, I want to go back to these dreams, but I can't.At this time, I would force myself to meditate: sometimes I thought that Hoja was dead, and I could think of the body lying in the empty room I had abandoned, of the people who came to carry the body, of the silence of the funeral when no one was present; Then I would think of his prophecies, of those amusing things which he invented with pleasure, and which he fabricated in disgust and rage; and the Sultan and his animals.The lobsters and crabs I impaled in the back, their claws waving, accompany these daydreams.

I tried to convince myself that slowly I would always be able to escape back to my country.For this, it was enough for me to steal money from open homes on the island.But before that, I must forget about Hoja.For I had fallen under the spell unknowingly, and wallowed in the allurement of events and memories: I almost reproached myself for deserting a man so like myself when he was dying.As now, I miss him dearly.Does he really look like me as he remembers, or am I just fooling myself?Then I decided it was because in eleven years I hadn't really looked at his face; when in fact I had done so quite often.I even had the urge to go back to Istanbul and see his body one last time.I think if I want to be free, I have to convince myself that our uncanny resemblance is just a false memory, a painful illusion that has to be unleashed, and I have to convince myself of that and I have to get used to it .

Fortunately I didn't get used to it.Because one day, I suddenly saw Hoja standing in front of me!I had just been stretching out in the backyard of the fisherman's house, daydreaming with my eyes closed and facing the sun, when I felt his presence.He was facing me, smiling, like he wasn't someone who won the game, but because he liked me.I have a strange sense of security, so strange that it frightens me.Perhaps, I had been quietly waiting for this moment: for I was immediately plunged into a sense of guilt from a lazy slave, a humble and obedient servant.Instead of hating Hoja, I despised myself as I packed my luggage.He paid off the money owed to the fisherman for me.Hoja brought two men with them, and they came with sculls, and we soon returned, reaching home before evening.I miss the taste of home.And the mirror has been taken down from the wall.

The next morning Hoja called me before him and said: I have committed a very serious crime, and he wanted to punish me, not only because I ran away, but also because I believed that the mosquito bite was a plague lump, and when he died, he wanted to punish me. Abandoned him, but now is not the time for punishment.He explained that the sultan had finally summoned him last week to ask when the plague would end, how many lives it would take, and whether his life was in danger.Hoja was very excited, but answered tactfully because he was unprepared.He asked for more time, expressing the need to observe the stars.He returned home jumping with triumph, but not knowing how to exploit the Sultan's interest.So he decided to get me back.

He knew early on that I was on that island.After my escape, he caught a cold, and after three days he pursued me and got a clue from the fisherman.After he had come up with some money, the talkative boatman said he had taken me to Blackberry.Hoja knew that since it was impossible for me to escape from the island, he stopped following me.I agree with him when he says that this meeting with the Sultan is a pivotal opportunity in his life.He confessed that he needed my knowledge. 7(2) We got to work right away.Hoja had the boldness of a man who knew what he wanted.I was delighted to see such determination, a quality rarely seen in him before.Knowing that he would be called again the next day, we decided to buy time.We immediately agreed on the principle, that is, not to provide too much information, but as long as it is what we provide, we must quickly verify it.Hoja was astute, which I greatly appreciated, and he immediately came to an opinion: "Prophecy is an act of burlesque, but it can be used well to sway fools." He listened to me as if he agreed that the plague was A catastrophe that can only be checked by strengthening sanitary defenses.Like me, he does not deny that this disaster is God's will, but the relationship is indirect; therefore, we mortals can do something in the face of disaster, and this does not hurt the pride of God.Didn't the Sage Umer also recall General Abu Ubed from Syria to Medina in order to save his army from the plague?Hoja will ask the sultan to minimize his contact with others in order to protect himself.It's not that we didn't think about forcing Sudan to take these precautions by spreading fear of death to Sudan, but it's dangerous.The incident wasn't so simple that a pompous description of death was enough to scare the Sultan, for he wasn't alone; and even if Hoja's chatter had an effect on him, there was a group of fools around who would help him overcome his fears.These unscrupulous fools could then accuse Hoja of irreligion at all times.So, with my knowledge of literature, we made up a story to tell the Sultan.

The thing that posed the greatest threat to Hoja was judging when the plague might end.I feel like our work has to revolve around the daily death toll.When I mentioned this to Hoja, he didn't seem very interested.He agreed to request Sudan's assistance to obtain the data, but that too would have been packaged into another story.I'm not a big believer in math, but our hands are tied. The next morning he went to the palace, and I went to the city, where the plague was ravaging.I was as afraid of the plague as ever, and my head was overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of everyday life and the desire to somehow control the world.It was a cool, breezy summer day, and as I walked among the dead and dying, I wondered how many years I hadn't loved life so much.I went into the courtyard of the mosque, wrote down the number of coffins on paper, walked around the block, trying to make a connection between what I saw and the death toll: to make a connection between these houses, these people, these masses, these elated Finding meaning in life, sorrow, and joy is not easy.And the strange thing is that my eyes only focus on some trivial things, on the lives of others, on the happiness, helplessness and indifference of people living in their own homes with relatives and friends.

Near noon, with the intoxication given me by the crowd and the corpses, I came to the opposite bank and came to Galata.I wandered around the workers' cafés around the shipyard, smoked coyly, ate at a humble restaurant, and visited the markets and shops simply out of a desire to know.I want to keep every detail in my mind in order to draw some kind of conclusion.I returned home after dusk, exhausted, listening to Hoja's news from the palace. Things are going very well.The story we fabricated moved the Sultan deeply.He accepts that the plague is like a devil, trying to take human form to deceive him.He decided not to allow strangers to enter the palace, and he had to undergo strict interrogation when entering and exiting.When asked when and how the plague would end, Hoja was so eloquent that the Sultan frightened and said that he could imagine Azrael, the angel of death, in the city like a drunkard. Strolling; Azrael took the hand of the man he set his sights on and led him away.Hoja hastily corrected him, saying that it was not Azrael who led people to death, but Satan—and he was not drunk, but scheming.As we planned, Hoja pointed out that it was imperative to declare war on Satan.The key to knowing when the plague will leave the city alone is to pay attention to its movements.Although some of the sultan's attendants said that declaring war on the plague was tantamount to opposing Allah, the sultan paid no attention to these words.Later, the sultan also asked about his animals: would the plague devil harm his falcons, eagles, lions and monkeys?Hoja immediately replied that demons approached people in the form of humans and animals in the form of mice.So the sultan ordered five hundred cats to be sent from a distant city untouched by the plague, and Hoja was given the men he wanted.

We immediately dispatched the twelve men under our command to various parts of Istanbul.They are responsible for patrolling each area, reporting the number of deaths and anything observed.We spread out on the table a rough map of Istanbul that I had copied from a book.With fear and joy, we marked the places where the plague spread on the map at night, and prepared things to report to the Sultan. At first, we were not optimistic.The plague was spreading through the city like an aimless vagabond rather than a scheming devil.One day it took forty lives in the Aksaray district and then let it go; another day it attacked Fatih and suddenly appeared on the other side, coming to Tophane, Jihangir On the next day, however, it barely disturbed these places, but went to Zeyreck and entered our area overlooking the Golden Horn, killing twenty people.We could draw no conclusions from the death toll; five hundred died one day, a hundred the next.By the time we realize that what we need to know is not where the plague killed, but where the infection first appeared, we have wasted a lot of time.The Sultan summoned Hoja again.We thought it over carefully and decided that what he meant was that the plague spread in crowded marketplaces, bazaars where people cheated on each other, and coffee shops where they sat next to each other and chatted.He went to the palace and returned home at night.

Hoja told the Sultan about the plague. "What shall we do?" the Sultan asked.Hoja suggested that mandatory measures should be taken to limit the activities in markets, bazaars and within the city.Of course, the idiots around the king immediately objected: how will the city guarantee life in this way?If commerce ceases, life ceases; the news that a plague roams in human form will terrify all who hear it, and there will be those who believe that the end of the world has come and will not obey; and no one wants to be locked up. In areas where plague demons linger, they will rise up in rebellion. "They were right," said Hoja.Now a fool asked where could one find enough manpower to exercise this degree of control over the populace.The sultan was furious and said he would punish anyone who doubted his power.Sultan's words terrified everyone.In this angry mood, the sultan ordered Hoja's advice to be followed, but he did not forget to consult his ministers.Mr. Setek, the royal astrologer, who had been on the lookout for revenge on Hoja, cautioned that Hoja had still not said when the plague would leave Istanbul.Hoja, fearing that the Sultan would heed Mr. Setek, said that the timetable would be brought with him at his next interview. 7(3) The map on the table has been filled with marks and data, but we still can't find any logic for the spread of the plague in the city.Now the Sudanese ban has begun and lasted for more than three days.Praetorians guarded the entrances and exits of the markets, the main roads, and the docks, stopping passers-by and asking them: "What's your name? Where are you going? Where are you coming from?" They sent timid, startled travelers and wandering people home. so that these people will not be infected with the plague.Knowing that the closed market and Onkapan's daily activities have slowed down, we wrote down the data on the number of deaths collected in the last month on small pieces of paper, pinned them to the wall, and pondered.From Hoja's point of view, waiting to find out the logic behind the spread of the plague would be a waste of time, and if we wanted to keep our heads, we'd have to invent something to deal with the Sultan in order to buy more time. The licensing system was introduced at this time.The chiefs of the Praetorian Guard distributed licenses to those who were deemed helpful in maintaining commerce and the supply of the city.I first felt the logic in the death figures when we learned that the chiefs were making a lot of money from this licensing system, and that small merchants who didn't want to pay were preparing to revolt.When Hoja was talking to me about Grand Chancellor Koprulu's plan to form an alliance with these small businessmen, I interrupted him, told him the logic in the death figures, and tried to convince him that the plague was slowly withdrawing marginalized neighborhoods and poor areas. He was not very convinced by my words, but still handed over the work of preparing the schedule to me.He said he had written a story to divert Sultan's attention and that it made no sense, so no one could draw any conclusions from it.A few days later, he asked whether it was possible for one to invent a story that was enjoyable to listen to and read, but which had no moral or meaning. "Like music?" I said.Hoja looked rather surprised.We discussed the idea that the ideal story would have an innocent beginning like a fairy tale, be nightmarishly horrifying at its core, and end tragically like an unreunited love story.The night before he entered the palace, we stayed up happily talking and working nervously.In the next room, our friend the left-handed copyist was transcribing the beautiful opening of a story that Hoja had not been able to arrange to finish.In the morning, with the limited data in my hands, I concluded from the comprehensive factors that I had worked hard to draw over the past few days: the plague will take the last human life in the market, and it will disappear in the city within twenty days.Hoja did not ask the basis for this conclusion, but said that the day of deliverance was too far away, and asked me to change the timetable to two weeks and hide the duration of the plague with other data.I wasn't that optimistic about it, but did as he said.Hoja made up some lines of poetry on the spot for certain dates in the timetable, and handed them to the scribe who was about to finish his work, while asking me to draw pictures to illustrate the lines.Near noon, he hurriedly had the paper bound with a blue marbled cover, and took it out the door.When going out, he appeared depressed, irritable, and he was a little scared.He says he has more faith in the pelicans, winged cows, red ants and talking monkeys he stuffs into stories than he does in timelines. He returned home in the evening in a spirit of exuberance, and for the next three weeks he permeated the spirit, for he had thoroughly convinced the Sultan of his prophecy.At first he said, "Anything can happen." On the first day, he was not at all hopeful.Some around the sultan even laughed as a young man with a beautiful voice read his story.Of course they did this deliberately to belittle Hoja, and to lessen the King's affection for him, but the Sultan silenced them and reprimanded them.He only asked Hoja what signs had led him to conclude that the plague would be over in a fortnight.Hoja replied that everything is contained in the story.And this is a story no one can understand.Then, to please the Sultan, he expressed his affection for the various cats that filled the inner courtyard and every room of the palace, brought by ship from Trabzon. 7(4) He said that when he entered the palace the next day, the palace had been divided into two groups: one group wanted to cancel the various epidemic prevention measures implemented in the city, and this group included Mr. Setek, a royal astrologer; the other group supported Hoja. Said: "Let this city hold its breath, and let not the plague demons that roam the city breathe." Seeing the death toll decrease day by day, I was filled with hope, but Hoja was still very worried.It was rumored that the first faction had made a deal with Koprulu for a coup d'état; their aim was not to defeat the plague, but to rid themselves of their enemies. By the end of the first week, the number of deaths had decreased significantly, but my calculations show that the epidemic will not disappear within a week.I complained that Hoja shouldn't have changed my timetable, but now he was hopeful.He excitedly told me that the rumors about the Grand Chancellor had stopped.In addition, the faction that supported Hoja spread the news that Koprulu was cooperating with them.As for the Sultan, completely terrified by the machinations, he turned to his cat for peace of mind. As the second week drew to a close, the containment measures weighed on the city more than the plague.The death toll is decreasing day by day, but only we and those like us who track the death toll know it.Rumors of famine had broken out, and great Istanbul was like a deserted city.As I have never left the area, Hoja told me: to feel the desperation of those who fought the plague behind these closed windows and courtyard portals, and to feel that they were waiting beyond the plague and death of something.The anticipation can be felt in the palace, too, when a cup falls on the floor, or someone coughs loudly, and the idiots tremble with terror, whispering below: "Look what the Sultan will decide today ’” But like those who are helpless, they long for something to happen, whatever that may be.Hoja, affected by the uproar, endeavored to explain to the Sultan that the plague was abating and that his prophecy was correct.But Sudan was not greatly influenced by him. In desperation, he finally had to talk about animals again. Two days later, Hoja concluded from the number of deaths received from the mosque: the epidemic had completely passed away.However, what made him happy that Friday was not this: a group of desperate businessmen clashed with the guards guarding the road; in addition, a group of guards who were dissatisfied with the epidemic prevention measures united with several stupid imams who were preaching in the mosque Some vagabonds eager to plunder and other vagabonds claim that the plague is the will of Allah and should not be interfered with.However, the unrest subsided before things got out of control.The immediate execution of twenty persons following the imam's verdict may have exaggerated these events.Hoja was satisfied. The next night, he declared his victory.No one in the palace ever said that these anti-epidemic measures would be lifted.When the head of the Praetorian Guards was summoned, he spoke of the rebel party in the palace, which greatly annoyed the Sultan.The hostility of this group of people once made Hoja's situation difficult, but now they dispersed like birds and beasts.At one point there were rumors that Koprulu would take harsh measures against the rebels.Hoja gleefully stated that, for that matter, he too had succeeded in exerting influence over the Sultan.Opponents of the rebellion have been trying to convince the sultan that the plague is over.They were right.The Sultan praised Hoja in words that had never been praised before.In order to show Hoja the monkeys he had had shipped from Africa, the Sultan showed him his custom-made cage.Hoja was disgusted by the filth and rudeness of these monkeys.As they looked at the monkeys, Sultan asked if the monkeys could learn to talk like parrots.Then the sultan turned to his attendants and announced that he wished to see Hoja often by his side in the future, and the timetable he had prepared proved to be correct. A month later, on Friday, Hoja was appointed royal astrologer.His stature was even higher than that: the sultan traveled to the Hagia Sophia for Friday services to celebrate the end of the plague, a ceremony attended by the entire city, with Hoja right behind him.The epidemic prevention measures have been lifted, and I also joined the cheering crowd thanking Allah and Sultan.The people shouted with all their might as the king passed us on horseback.They were ecstatic, lost their minds, kept squeezing and pushing, and rushed forward in waves, only to be pushed back by the imperial guards.At one point, I was pushed to the side of the tree by the boiling crowd, and after bravely pushing through the crowd and squeezed in front, I happened to be facing Hoja.He was only four or five steps away from me, looking satisfied and happy.His eyes avoided mine, as if he didn't recognize me.In the midst of that terrible uproar I jumped up suddenly and stupidly, and I don't believe Hoja saw me.I yelled at him with all my might, as if he would save me from the crowd if he found me here, so I could join the joyful parade of victory and power!But I'm not trying to share the win or get rewarded for what I do.Then I had a completely different feeling in my heart: I should be there because I am Hoja himself!Like my usual nightmares, I was separated from my real self and looked at myself from the outside, which means I was someone else.I don't even want to know who this other person I am inside is.As I watched in horror at myself walking past me without recognizing me, all I wanted was to be reunited with him as soon as possible.But a soldier like an animal pushed me hard into the crowd.