History watch: When criminals could escape the death penalty by beating the executioner in a race
Executions were widespread in the Ottoman Empire, but there was a way out.
The Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for the four living adult convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case, while the Bombay court refused to change the life sentence to a death penalty for three of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape during the 2002 Gujarat riots, despite the CBI’s appeal.
The question of the death penalty continues to vex people around the world, even as a large number of countries have done away with it.
There was a time, however, some people sentenced to be executed in the Ottoman Empire (which was founded in 1299) could escape their designated fate. How?
They had to defeat their executioner in a foot race.
But first, a little historical context.
The Ottoman Empire, which spread across modern Turkey, the Balkans, most of North and the Middle East from the late 13th to the early 20th century, flourished thanks to a vicious legacy of ruthlessness. It boasted of mass executions, cruel leaders, and even what was called “law of fratricide” for a couple of centuries, which involved the murder of all male relatives to ensure a place on the throne. One of its dubious legacies was the horrific early 20th century Armenian Genocide.
Executions were an unquestioned norm in the Ottoman Empire. “Selim the Grim”, the most feared Sultan, ordered some 30,000 executions in merely eight years, including seven Grand Viziers (the Ottoman equivalent of Chief Minister). In fact, they were so common that the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, which was the site of the executions, had a “Fountain of Execution” where the executioners, who were also the palace gardeners, literally washed the blood off their hands.
The palace itself was a symbol of the ruthlessness of the empire – both sides of the palace’s Imperial Gate were lined with the severed heads of recently executed criminals, while “example stones” of marble with the heads of nobles were on display outside the Central Gate. And if that wasn’t enough, there were additional warnings in the form of severed noses, ears and tongue also piled up next to the gate.
The strange custom, which is explained in the video above, of the life and death race, has unknown origins, though credible accounts of it started cropping up in the eighteenth century. The last known person to save himself in this manner was Grand Vizier Hacı Salih Pasha in November 1822.
With Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – whose powers have greatly increased after a referendum – determined to reinstate the death penalty, this bit of history may become a strange footnote.
