Seferberlik

Etymology

A linguistice dictionary defines the term Safarberlik as either the “Preparation for war” (تأهب للحرب ) or “Popular conscription” (نفير عام). There are various narratives about the origin of the word. In Arabic, “Safar" means traveling, “Barr” means land, and the Ottoman suffix -lik refers to mobilization. Thus, the term could be interpreted as meaning “civilian travel in a time of official mobilization”. In Persian, the term “Seferber” means prepared for war and when combined with the Ottoman suffix –lik the word means “Mobilization in preparation for war”. The practice of Safarberlik and its significance in Arab literature and history is shown in what follows.

Safarberlik as a historical experience

For the Ottoman government, the term Safarberlik was part of official state discourse referring to wartime mobilization either during the second Balkan war or World War I. When Ottoman regional and local officials stood publicly to announce the beginning of the conscription process, they loudly began their announcements with the word “Safarberlik”. Once Safarberlik was announced, conscription for the war would begin and young men were called and collected to be sent to the war front.

History

Safarberlik went on with resistance; young men in Greater Syria did not feel related to or concerned by the rationale for Ottoman wars. When the Safarberlik was announced they sometimes hid during the process or fled during battles. As a countermeasure to the escaping from conscription or desertion from war fronts, the government sent bounty hunters to roam city streets and catch young men and deserters. It has been said that officials carried ropes with them to encircle, tie up and carry off boys and men on the run. In the same context, the term Safarberlik was used to refer to the event of the war itself. In Siham Turjma’ s book Daughters of Damascus chapter on “The Safarberlik,” tells the memories of her father who, according to his tale, was conscripted “to go to the Safarberlik” i.e. the war and worked as a telegrapher and communication officer on the front lines. Also Abdul Fattah Qal3aji wrote his book “Urs Ḥalabī wa-hikāyāt min SafarBarlik” (translated: Aleppine wedding and stories from the Safarberlik). Safarberlik in this book is a synonym for the war and its events.

Controversy over the experience of Safarbelik in Medina (Saudia Arabia)

Ahmen Amin Saleh Murshid, a historian of Al-Medina, and Zakarya Muhammad al-Kenisi, a historian who specialized in old Ottoman Turkish, disagree over the general meaning of the term Safarberlik. Saleh Murshid believes the term connotes the meaning of a collective deportation, especially in the context of the inhabitants of the city of Medina under the leadership of Fakhri Pasha. In addition, Saleh Murshid argues that historians should not rely exclusively on dictionaries and documents to translate Ottoman Turkish terms into Arabic. Lived experiences and popular understandings of these terms are crucial in explaining these terms. Zakarya Muhammad al-Kenisi argues that the term Safarberlik means preparation of the armies for war or a military campaign. He argues that Ottoman Turkish translations regarding the history of Medina contains substantial errors that resulted in different meanings and understandings of Medina’s history.

Although both scholars disagree over the meaning of Safarberlik, they are in agreement about the events that the term Safarberlik describes. In Medina’s memory of the war, Safarberlik refers to the collective deportation of the city’s inhabitants by the famous Hijaz train. According to current research on the topic in Medina, Safarberlik for the original inhabitants of the city invokes memories of humiliation and the destruction of social and familial structure. Families, women and children were dragged to the train and randomly abandoned in Greater Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. According to the same source, only 140 people remained in the city and they suffered from food shortages caused by the Ottoman military leader Omar Fakhr eddin, also known as Fakhri Pasha.

Safarberlik in Arabic Literature and Historiography

Safarberlik and the memories associated with it constitute an important element in Arabic literature. Poets and Authors whose parents endured the hardships associated with Safarberlik received first-hand accounts of war experience and the means by which the war impacted the society in Greater Syria. These authors and poets have used the material of Safarberlik in various contexts. Some authors used it in novels such as Nadia Al-Ghazzi, Hanna Mina…etc. In addition to the literature, authors of cities or villages popular history during the early 20th century mentioned Safarberlik in regards to the war, and it was depicted as an essential event in the history of this period. A substantial amount of historical books were produced, including Ṭarāʼif wa-ṣuwar min tārīkh Dimashq or “Anecdotes and pictures from the history of Damascus” by Hānī Khayyir and Siham Turjman’s book Ya Mal el-Sham “The Daughter of Damascus.” The following chapters cites some of the images used in Arab literature and history books and which depicts the memories invoked by the term Safarberlik.

Safarberlik, famine, separation from the beloved, cannibalism and prostitution

In the 20th century Arabic's literature and Arab history accounts of the period Safarberlik became a synonym for the famous famine that overran Greater Syria, especially Mont Lebanon, in 1916 during World War I. The Syrian journalist Abd al-Ghani al-Utri in his book I’tirafat Shami ‘atiq; sira dhattyya wa suwar dimashqiyya (translated: Confessions of an old Damascene, Biography and Damascene pictures) suggests that Syrians have sanctified bread even since the Great War. The diary of a Palestinian Ottoman soldier, Ihsan Turjman, during WWI clearly describes the scarcity of foodstuffs and the overpricing sugar, rice and grains. Novelists, journalists, and playwrights used the oral accounts of those who lived and experienced WWI, and the miseries of Safarberlik that they described to produce an impressive body of literary and drama production. Safarberlik scenes report on the miserable circumstances people lived through. In al-Ghazzi’s book Shirwal Barhum (translated: The Pants of Barhum), during Safarberlik people were depicted as fighting over lemon and orange rinds while children pick watermelon rinds from the mud. Siham Turjman tells the account of her mother who was then 14 years old and tells that during the Safarberlik everything was expensive, people would line up in front of the bakery at midnight to buy the following morning coal-like, burnt, and overpriced bread.

Safarberlik is associated with cannibalism during the war’s famine. Memoirs and reports published shortly after the end of the Great War gave an account of the horrific scenes of famine that filled Lebanon’s streets. In Antun Yamin’s Lubnan fi al-Harb--a two-volume history published in 1919— a section entitled “Stories that Would Shake Rocks” gives a detailed report of moments when people attacked corpses of dead animals and children and ate them. Also, Hanna Mina in Fragments of Memory tells the childhood memories of his father: “What are they supposed to do during the famine?…People will eat each other when winter comes, they are not to be blamed, during the Safarberlik, mothers ate their children and they became like cats and ate their children”

Prostitution resulted from the duress of hunger, disease and the absence of male breadwinners during the Safarberlik. Women did not have many options for feeding their children or themselves. Prostitution became part of daily life during the Great War. Diaries of contemporary soldiers and the poetry of contemporary poets do not omit this phenomenon. Ihsan Turjman mentioned his encounter with a prostitute in the Jerusalem streets and he showed sympathy and understanding for her needs rather than prejudice. Yusuf Shalhub, the famous Zajal poet, lamented the deterioration of living conditions during the War, which led many women to sell their bodies in exchange for bread.

Safarbelik has also emerged as a theme in Arab films and television programming. The famous Rahbani Brothers produced in the 1960s a war film called Safar Barlik (سفربرلك), which depicts the story of young women suffering from separation from her fiance who was forcefully conscripted into the war. In the 1990s, a Syrian drama series Ikhwat al-Turan (translated: Brothers in Soil) by the director Najdat Anzour shows the process of conscription to the Saraberlik and the separation of soldiers from families and loved ones.