This essay examines the views about Turks, the East and Islam of three different travelers who had different backgrounds and travel aims. It will be possible to exhibit the relationship between their understanding as well as interpretation of the East and their aim of travel, thus similarities and differences of and its impact on the formation of their views. Robert the Monk’s Latin rendition of a travelogue by an anonymous soldier entitled ‘The History of Jerusalem’ was completed in the early twelfth century. This important historicalliterary document of Western Orientalism and its opposite Turkish image, has since been translated several times into many languages, including the German translation of 1502, reprinted by Barbara Haupt in 1972, which I have used in this article.

Robert the Monk suggests that Christians living in Anatolia and the Holy Land were killed, imprisoned, or forcibly Islamized by ‘unbelievers,’ meaning Turks. Stating that the first encounter of the Turks with the Crusader army took place near Nicaea, Robert calls the surrender of the Crusader commander Prince Raynardus to the Turks as ‘Being Southerner’. Thus, he describes the South as a symbol of cowardice, resistlessness, compliance, unprincipledness, and the North as a symbol of militancy, fearlessness, and nonsubmissiveness. In this context, like the Asia-Europe and East-West dilemma, the NorthSouth contrast becomes important in terms of Orientalism and the Turkish image. From Robert’s account, it becomes clear that the Crusaders participated in the campaign not only to achieve a sacred goal, but to become personally rich. As he describes it, the Crusaders rob the dead bodies of their enemies, and words were not enough describing the amount of gold and silver they find. Robert describes in detail Tarsus and Antioch where the founding churches of Christianity are located and where the Turks were defeated. He tells how the Christians who defeated the Turks in these cities seized great spoils. After the murder of a crusader commander in Antioch and the defeat of the Crusaders by the Turks, a knight named Wido tells God: ‘Almighty God, where is your power? If you are omnipotent, why did you stand by? such events happen; how did you allow such a disaster? Why did you become a laughingstock of the Turks?’ These words can be characterized as an indication of the conditioning of the church. Following Hegel, who said that the Crusades caused the West to break away from the East forever, it can be said that although the Crusades encouraged all kinds of devout Christian religiosity, they also set the stage for the temporariness of thought in Europe.

‘The History of Jerusalem’ describes almost entirely the conflicts between the Turks and the Crusader army and their consequences. It is full of the many characterizations that shaped the Turkish image that settled in Europe over the centuries. These are negative imageforming characterizations such as ‘brutal’, ‘treacherous’, ‘wild’, ‘coward’, and ‘barbarian.’ Because of its dissemination by the church, this book made significant contributions to the dissemination of the negative Turkish image throughout Europe. Johan Schiltberger, the first German prisoner to remain as a prisoner for an extended period among the Turks and the Mongols, describes extensively their styles, daily life, and traditions. Dozens of editions of Schiltberger’s travelogue were published in various places. The first edition was published in 1460. One of them, entitled ‘Chronicles and Descriptions About Turkey,’ was published in Nuremberg in 1530 with a preface by Martin Luther. Luther’s preface thoroughly increased the influence of the travelogue. The edition of 1550 is entitled ‘The Miraculous and Brief History of Schiltberger, from Munich in Bavaria, Being Captured by the Turks, taken to the Land of Unbelievers and Returned to His Homeland’ (Ein wunderbarliche unnd kürtzweilige Histori, wie Schildtberger, einer auß der Stat München in Bayern, von den Türcken gefangen, in die Heydenschafft gefüret unnd wider heymkommen). I have used the edition of this travelogue published in Ulm in 1476.

Schiltberger was a prisoner between 1394 and 1427. A section of his work titled ‘What did the Turkish Sultan do, how did he treat the prisoners, how did he kill them?’ describes the behavior of the Turks against prisoners. After being brought to Anatolia, Schiltberger served the Sultan for twelve years. Having fallen captive to the Mongols, Schiltberger learned about the Caucasian countries, Iran, and Armenia. He describes the differences of the beliefs of Armenians and Jews from Western Christianity and the original aspects of Islam in detail. By his assessments of the actions of Timur and his army, he gives shape to the Eastern or Asian image of Europe, hence the Orientalist knowledge. According to Schiltberger, for three days Timur had severed heads collected in Syria and created towers from them. These and similar narratives exemplified the cruelty of eastern despotism, and are instrumentalized case by case when it serves the situation and purpose which turns out to be one of the main pillars of Orientalism.

Alexander Pushkin travelled to Erzurum during the Ottoman-Russian war in JuneJuly 1829. A contemporary of Byron and Goethe, who were both active and determined philhellenists, Pushkin explained that the Russians did not participate in the war to talk about their triumphs. His travelogue is a document of Pushkin’s identification with Europe. Pushkin puts forward a ‘normal Western attitude’ against what he called the ‘high flown Eastern attitude’. Although he always distinguishes between Asia and Europe or East and West, he nevertheless also criticizes his own prejudices. According to Pushkin, who treats Georgians and Armenians with a positive emphasis, the Turks are uncouth, ignorant, and rude. He also understood that the Russians tried to instrumentalize the Ottoman Armenians in the 1800s to achieve their own goals.

Just like the medieval travelogue, Pushkin states that the Turks ‘behead’ their enemies. The image of the beheading Turk is a constantly recurring feature in early travel writings about the East. This image was perpetuated throughout Europe through the first newspapers called ‘New news’ published between 1500 and 1600. Pushkin, in the ‘Erzurum Gates’ section, explains the situation of the defeated and imprisoned Turkish troops with his own words: ‘This much was unbearable!’ According to the writer, there is a deep expression of calmness and majesty on the ‘beautiful face’ of a Turkish Pasha who was captured by the Cossacks in the Russian army. These narratives can be regarded as an indicator of Pushkin’s humanistic and impartial attitude. According to Pushkin, the basic characteristics of the East and Asia are poverty and primitiveness. Like most Western travelers and writers, Pushkin, was very curious about the harem. Visiting the harem of the Turkish commander in Erzurum, he states that seeing and experiencing the harem is the subject of a true Eastern novel. Also, here a son had his father beheaded. This, he suggests, is the true East. As can be seen, images of hitting the neck or cutting the head are also constantly repeated by Pushkin.