12019-10-14T17:20:05+00:00Turkish Courtship Rituals and Weddings7plain2019-12-09T20:53:46+00:00Bernard makes a bold statement right at the beginning of his section on the Mahometans, or Turkish: “This ceremony is not an act of religion, as with the Jews and Christians.” Rather, it appears as a familial or cultural or even civil ceremony. Women must have a dowry in order to make a reasonable match. Bernard makes 10 claims about Turkish marriages based on the stories of various “travelers” in the area, from their refusal to marry anyone closer in relation than “eight generations” to the idea that wives can demand their husbands away from their concubines and to their bed—but only on Thursdays. Picart’s illustration of a Turkish marriage feels out of place; Bernard never mentions a certain procession or celebration going along with the marriage ceremony. He also never explains this Turkish courtship ritual involving a Turkish man “slashing himself” to prove his love to a woman. There seems to have been some type of disconnect between author and illustrator, and so it is difficult to know what is true and what may be a fabrication or amalgamation of many different narratives.
