Stubborn Keraban’s Black Sea tour

Jules Verne’s novel Stubborn Keraban, published in 1883, tells the story of Keraban, who was unwilling to pay the tax imposed on boats to cross the waterway (Bosphorus) that separates the Asian and European sides of Istanbul and who traverses the entire Black Sea coast.

During Mahmut II’s reign between 1808 and 1839, the Ottoman Empire was the scene of many westernization movements. The groups that resisted innovations opposed this progressive ruler with their traditionalist perspectives. The famous French writer of the period, Jules Verne’s novel, originally titled Kéraban le Têtu, was inspired by this duality. The events revolved around Keraban Ağa, an old-fashioned tobacco merchant from Istanbul, famous for his stubbornness. By creating this character, the author satirized the opposition of the empire and added extensive insights about the daily life of the period to the text. Another feature of the novel was that it contained clues about the relations of all the peoples on the Black Sea coast, especially those in Istanbul, the capital of the empire, with the sea.

The story begins as follows: The Dutch tobacco merchant, Van Mitten, and his servant, Bruno, come to Istanbul during the holy month of Ramadan. Because of the fasting customs, the city appears deserted. After wandering around for a while, they meet Keraban Ağa and set off to his mansion in Üsküdar for dinner. As they board the boat and cross to the Asian side, Keraban learns that a new tax has been imposed on the boats operating on the Bosphorus that day. However, he neglected to pay this tax early in the morning while traveling in the opposite direction. He gets upset and decides not to pay it. In order to do so, he thinks of an alternative route to cross the sea, which is not even a mile long, and decides to travel through the entire Northern Black Sea coast, the Crimea and the Caucasus, and then through Northern Anatolia to reach his home by land. Van Mitten and his servant Bruno accompany him as they commence a voyage spanning over five thousand kilometers via horsedrawn carriage. Due to Keraban’s refusal to utilize the train, which was a new and innovative mode of transportation at that time, it is uncertain about the duration of this excursion. The carriage underneath them is old enough to make those who understand modern carriages laugh.

For those familiar with Jules Verne’s reputation as a trailblazer in science fiction writing, this novel, with its distinct style, can be seen as more representative of the adventure genre. The narrative is conveyed from the perspective of two strangers, and the char acter of Keraban is used as a satirical tool. The main character, who reacts to all the innovations introduced by the rule of Mahmut II, such as European clothing, baroque architecture, western education, and military organization, is undoubtedly exaggerated, but this element opens up a wide field of creativity for the author. In this way, many side characters and secondary stories are included in the fiction.

For example, when the trio embarks on their journey to Odessa, they discover that a wealthy merchant from Trabzon is interested in marrying Ahmet’s fiancée, who is also Keraban’s nephew and only inheritor. The merchant kidnaps the girl and seizes her inheritance in six weeks. Learning of this, Keraban travels as fast as he can to rescue his nephew and his bride-to-be. Due to his stubbornness not to take the much faster train, they get stuck in the mud on the banks of the Danube. By the time they reach Odessa, it is too late, and the merchant has kidnapped the girl. Ahmet then joins the caravan, and they continue their journey together. When their horses are too tired to walk, they run a camel they find to the cart. As the journey full of dangers continues, the train, which Keraban dislikes, hits their carriage. While they are passing through Kazakhstan, they are arrested and deported. Nevertheless, no obstacle can stop Keraban from his journey. This stubbornness sometimes works in their favor. Realizing that a ship is sinking off the coast of Georgia and rushing to help, they come across Ahmet’s kidnapped fiancée, whom they rescue and take with them. The team gradually grows. A misunderstanding even leads Van Mitten to get engaged to a girl in Trabzon. The journey continues with a thousand troubles and difficulties. A rich merchant is following them, and they must reach Istanbul and marry the young couple as soon as possible. When they barely reach their destination, Üsküdar, they learn that the marriage can only be performed across the Bosphorus since Ahmet’s civil registration is on the European side. After such a troublesome and expensive journey, Keraban again refuses to cross to avoid paying the tax. Danger is approaching. At that moment, Keraban notices an acrobat performing on a tightrope stretched from the shore to the Maiden’s Tower and then to the Galata pier. He pays the acrobat much more than the tax and takes Ahmet and his fiancée across in a wheelbarrow. The young couple is thus saved. On the other hand, Keraban pays a huge fortune to the palace and buys the right to collect the Bosphorus crossing tax from the state and the novel ends.

Jules Verne does not refrain from providing readers who follow the story with excitement with a lot of up-to-date geographical information. For example, he warns that Samsun, a former Athenian colony, is vulnerable to an attack from the sea, and mentions the Armenian population density in Erzurum and the Kurdish population density in the mountainous regions. The novel also includes many observations on the local food and drink culture and emphasizes the differences from the western culture. Although relatively little known, this work of Jules Verne, in which the theatrical narration, which he rarely included in his extraordinary travel adventures, is undoubtedly the most humorous. From time to time, the marital problems in the author’s personal life are also revealed in the story.

Since 1990, numerous radio and television productions and cultural travel programs have followed the route of this novel. Artists such as Ömer Asan, Isaac Babel, Elias Canetti, Panaït Istrati, Constantin Paoustovski and Yeşim Ustaoğlu have also created works inspired by the natural environments and cultural heritage around the Black Sea. Keraban’s persistence can be said to continue in contemporary politics among the Slavic societies on the northern shores of this inland sea. On the southern shores, the melting pot of Scythian, Caucasian, and Cimmerian, then Greek, Genoese, and Turkish cultures bears the rich traces of the past, waiting to be discovered by adventurous sailors just like argonauts.