People’s democratic republic of algeria ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research University of Tlemcen Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of English Orientalism in Lord Byron's Turkish Tale

partly to D'Herbelot, and partly to that most Eastern, and, as Mr. Weber 
justly entitles It, "sublime tale," the Caliph Vathek" (Murray 79). In 
addition to these acts of indebtedness, he endeavored to accentuate the 

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Chapter Two: Orientalism in Lord Byron's Turkish Tale 
The Giaour
32
genuineness of what he calls 'the costume' of the tales or else to prove the 
validity of his Oriental knowledge. In a letter to John Murray he claimed:
I send you a note for the Ignorant - but I really wonder 
at finding you among them - I don't care one lump of 
Sugar for my poetry - but for my costume - and my 
correctness on those points…I will combat lustily 
(Moore 220). 
The perfect example of his persistence on seeking the correctness of 
information is when he asked Murray about the burial of the prophet: 
"Look out in the Encyclopaedia article Mecca whether it is there or at 
Medina" (Moore 219) and for not being answered while pressed by the 
need of a clue he addressed him severely:
Did you look out? Is it Medina or Mecca that contains 
the holy sepulchure? don't make me blaspheme by your 
negligence I have no book of reference or I would save 
you the trouble. I blush as a good Mussulman to have 
confused the point (219). 
The importance of this letter lies on a tendency that corrected a common 
Western misconception about the burial place of the prophet. For writers 
who are not acquainted with the details of pilgrimage they point at Mecca 
as the site of the prophet's tomb. For instance; Byron's contemporary 
Walter Scott who presented Saladin swearing: "by the tomb at Mecca" (95) 
in his 
Talisman
. 
Turkish history was also among the sources employed in Byron's 
works. A point confirmed in Count Gamba's report: 
Wherever there was any difference of opinion, we 
always found on reference, that Byron was right; his 
memory, indeed, was surprisingly accurate. He said: 
"The Turkish history was one of the first books that 
gave me pleasure when a child; and I believe it had 
much Influence on my subsequent wishes to visit the 

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Chapter Two: Orientalism in Lord Byron's Turkish Tale 
The Giaour
33
Levant, and gave, perhaps, the Oriental colouring 
which is observed in my poetry. (quoted by Knight 19). 
Lord Byron's source to 
The Giaour
was already identified in his 
advertisement of the poem. However, the main episode was directly 
observed by him. His biographer, Leslie A. Marchand revealed:
One day when he [Byron] was returning from his daily 
bathing at Piraeus he observed a curious procession 
moving down toward the shore under a guard of 
soldiers. Sending one of his servants to inquire, he 
learned that it was a party sent to execute the sentence 
of the Waiwode or Turkish governor of Athens on a 
girl caught in an act of illicit love. She had been sewed 
into a sack and was to be cast into the sea. (quoted by 
Kidwai 46). 
In conjunction with the story heard by the coffee-house story-tellers, his 
personal observation is an extra source to the tale. 
The Giaour 
was full of Oriental materials;
 
in the opening lines of the 
poem, an Oriental material was displayed:
 
"For there - the Rose, o'er crag 
or vale / Sultana of the Nightingale," (21-22). In the explanatory note of the 
poem he enlightened the reader that "the attachment of the nightingale to 
the rose is a well-known Persian fable" (Kidwai 47). Hence, Coleridge, 
Wiener and McGann nominated Henley's note on