58. Today in 1920s Turkey: 4 February 1924 (Bargaining with God)

Cartoon by Sermed, published in Akbaba, 4 February 1924, no. 122, page 3.

Comments:
This rather goofy looking man, is clearly down on his luck. He sits in a heavily tattered chair placed in a sparse interior space accented with a framed wall hanging that reads “Oh Patience” (Ya Sabır). The man’s personal appearance is no better: his shoes are worn to their soles; his face is unshaven; his jacket is patchy; and his fez is comically undersized for his head. Below the cartoon is a text that reveals that this man, gesturing to the heavens, is caught in the act of informally bargaining with his Almighty God. Here is how his plea for outright funds unfolds:

English:
Oh God… If you bestow upon me one thousand pieces of gold I will definitely give half of it to the poor. If you do not believe my word, you divide it, give five hundred to them, and five hundred to me…

Türkçe:
Yarabbi… Eğer bana bin altın ihsan edersen, muhakkak yarısını fukaraya dağıtırım. Eğer sözüme inanmazsan, sen taksim et, beşyüzünü onlara ver, beşyüzünü de bana…

This poor soul’s request constitutes far more money than necessary for his immediate survival, thus in many ways it is a frivolous petition and one that is not based on skill or merit. Rather, the man attempts to prove his “worthiness” for a donation by promising to give away monies he does not yet have and monies that he did not himself earn. And this is not even the silliest condition of his bargain. In any case, the calligraphic wall hanging perhaps substitutes a potential Godly response: patience.

Entire page, Akbaba, 4 February 1924, no. 122, page 3. Atatürk Library, Istanbul.

For further reading, a post about the second cartoon featured on the same page of this magazine can be found here: #139: The Dirty Little Secret Behind Spats

Originally published at https://steemit.com on February 5, 2017.