In the Search for a Bloody Brigand

Şahin YALDIZ
29.09.2019-Budapest

                Horrifying bandits. Uncontrollable rebels. Bloody bastards. Are they? Yes! They are! Whom are we talking about? I’ll tell a thorough story of them however let’s bore you with some historical aspect!
                Zeibeks, fearless social bandits of Western Anatolia. Some historians named them as the left-over of a prehistoric community in Western shores of Anatolia, some claimed that they were king of the seas in prehistoric times but dwelled deep into the mountains, some said that they came to Anatolia in the 7^th century from Central Asia, some said that they were the soldiers of lost Luwian culture. We are not sure about their origin however the only aspect everybody agree on is: FEAR.

A Zeibek from 1858

           

What did they do? We know that since 16^th century, they’d been dwelling on mountains generally with 12 membered bandit group. They were robbing the rich and giving money to the poor. They were investing on villages not to be betrayed by villagers. They were building fountains, arranging marriages, giving land to the poor. They were fierce killers at the same time. They were not contented with just killing the rich man, they were killing all the family of those rich people because they wanted to remove the small risk of the rich man’s 3-month-old baby’s growing up and coming back for revenge. They were amazingly brutal!

Most of their times they were fighting against Ottoman executives in the Aegean region. The pitiless taxation of the governors and corrupted behaviours of them were devastating the peasant. As a result, the peasant in the villages were supporting those Zeibeks and Zeibeks were fighting for their own personal interests and the peasant. They were sometimes used as mercenaries by Ottoman Empire. To give an example of their brutality and greatness at guerilla war I’ll give an example. There was a war in 1853 between Ottoman Empire and Russian Empire. Ottoman was so desperate that they sought the help of Zeibeks. When they went to that war in Crimea and the chief commander of the Ottoman army ordered: ‘One who brings 10 head for me, can go back home.’. The day after the war begin, some of the Zeibeks were coming back home already… They were everywhere, they were nowhere. The name of Zeibek meant “being the king of yourself” for some Zeibeks. This banditry tradition ended around 1930-1940.

A Zeibek from the beginning fo 19th century

They had also their unique dances called with the same name: Zeibek dances. I’m that dance’s instructor also a folklorist loving collecting stories, songs and dances about those Zeibeks. Since my childhood I’d been hearing stories about a zeibek named Murad of Çavdar however everybody was praising him. He was the best, he was helping everybody, handsome, great gunman etc. While stories of Murad begin with the great achievements, he had those stories in a while evolves into something horrifying and every storyteller begin to tell about a guy who is evil. However, the inclination for the bad had already started in Anatolia waaay before Joker, Hulk, Suicide Squad. When you name bad, this guy deserves that adjective. Who is that bad? Hüseyin the Little. Okay okaaaay. Are you lost? Don’t! With some examples I’ll make you understand who the hell those Murad and Hüseyin are?
                As I mentioned I love the stories about them. Since I first heard stories about them I wanted to go for the villages that I could seek their traces. Did I find? HELL YES!

For nights and days, I went to those villages where those two acted as bandits, I’ve found psychopathic stories.

“He is an amazing musician. There is not any better musician on the instrument of baglama. While he could play it with one hand, with other hand he could engage in skirmish. Let me tell you a story that really happened. One day Hüseyin the Little was staying at home playing his baglama. The two wives of him were knitting. He loved them really. While he was playing the instrument, with other hand the pointed his rifle to one of his wives and shot her fron her arm. She screamed as if she was dying the other wife went to get some already boiling water. Huseyin waited her bring the water but when she was about to clean the wound with that water, he left his instrument and began to beat the wife who brought water. Do you know why those happened?’’

A classical depiction of a Zeibek

I was so curious about the answer because all the process was meaningless. A loving guy shooting one of her wives and beating the other. Why?

            

       “Because he wondered what her older wife would do if one day, he comes home wounded. He shot her to use as an example. Do you know why he beat the other one? Because she should have helped with cold water. “

                “While he was riding by a coffee shop, he shot a man who did not look at Huseyin. He should have looked at him and be terrified by his presence.’’

                “He burned this olive oil factory because the owner did not want to give him some money.’’

                “He buried more than 1 ton of gold in the mountain.”

        

       This infamous guy got lost for 30 years after his brother Murad of Çavdar’s death due to a fault of Hüseyin the little. Nobody knew nothing his whereabo
uts. This 30 year is between 1918-1948. Huseyin was 23 when he got lost. During my search I met with a really old grandpa. He was 110 years old when I talked with him. Huseyin the Little was his uncle so let’s hear his story about Huseyin the Little:

                

Beşparmak (Latmos) Mountains where Huseyin the Little and Murad of Çavdar were brigands.

          ‘’My mom was about to give birth to me. It was her 8^th month of pregnancy. However, if I would be born my uncle would have to share the inheritance with me. So, he tried to chop my mother’s belly with an axe. However my mother did not die and gave birth to me. Before he got lost he hid some of the golds he stolen under the stairs. Behind each stair step a huge box of gold was hidden. We wanted to renovate the house but one morning when we woke up, we found out that all the workers working on renovation had gone. We learned that they became rich and they sent us a small amount of money for this treasure.’’

                          After finding this old man, this Huseyin the Little’s physical appearance became a wondrous curiosity for me, so I began to search for some hints about his appearance.

                

                “He was two meter high.”

                “He had amazing moustaches on a horrorful face”

                “He was like a monster.”

                

          While building an image on my mind I got a phone call from Huseyin the Little’s grandson. He invited me to his shop to have some tea and talk about Huseyin. I went there and began listening the same stories. However, there was a new story I did now know. His reappearance in 1948.

               

            “I was playing in the garden. I was 9 or 8. An old guy came. Asked my name. I said my name is Murad. ‘Oh, my brother’s name.’ he said. He got a branch from the lemon tree in the garden and began to draw some triangles and unknown shapes and ordered me to show this to my grandmother (that he shot). I said okay. He took me to the mountains with his horse and showed me a huge rock. He said ‘I managed to hide a ton of gold inside that rock. Don’t forget this rock, the only way to get is to destroy it with a dynamite. Don’t forget this rock Murad! I can’t show no one else than you. Don’t tell anything about this rock to anybody! I’ll leave you next to house and show the signs I made to your grandmother.’
             He left me home and I asked my grandma to come to garden. At the moment she saw the signs she began to scream: Come on! Help us! The devil has come back! He has come back! The monster is here! He is not dead! He is here! Call the army! Not the police! Call the army! He is gonna kill all the village! Neighbours! Come here come and help! Heeeeelpppp! In a moment the news scattered all around the village. Hundreds of people gathered from nearby villages and until the midnight thousands of people came from nearby cities. He’d went into the garrison to surrender for the murders he committed (more than 100-150) and for being a zeibek. Thousands of people were waiting to see him. The chief commander told him that he could not arrest him because he had committed those murders in the time of Ottoman Empire. Now there was a new state. So he let ‘the monster’ go. When he step out of the garrison there was an amazing silence. Our heartbeats could be heard. He walked slowly among the thousands to the mountains. a guy came up and punched Hüseyin the Little in the face. This guy screamed: You are not a zeibek. You are a fucking killer! Hüseyin did not say anything and continued to walk to the mountains. That was the last time people saw him. However, there is something which I keep remembering him. A photograph of him. Would you like to see?’’

Years of curiosity was about to end. It ended with that:

Huseyin the Little (in zeibek costume)

Is he a monster? It does not look so huh?