Turnavitu, a famous beardless man

Among the emblematic figures of the Balkans, the beardless man has always seemed like a guardian of crossroads, a patron of roads who lures travelers toward acts they had never considered. He is seductive, capricious and often malicious. One of the most famous was Turnavitu.

The name appears in Urmuz’s “Ismail and Turnavitu,” though the article concerns a different figure. Several people bore the name in history, including one deeply reviled in the 18th century, accused of treason and drawn into numerous events. The name once broadly described people from Greek Târnova in Meglen, including Greeks and, more commonly, Megleno-Romanians who worked as teachers or entered trade.

One of them was Dumitrachi, born in Bucharest to the second generation of Meglen immigrants. He had charm and political instinct. Whenever a new prince took the throne, he summoned Turnavitu. Once Turnavitu entered the palace, plans changed and new dreams appeared. Princes became permanently captivated, while some reportedly fell into depression when he left Bucharest.

Turnavitu was linked to the secret affairs of Wallachia. The article says Mavrogheni took no step without him. The two were inseparable, even embracing in carriages and, according to some stories, occupying a floating balloon seen above the Dâmbovița at midday. They sat face to face in the Divan, and Mavrogheni, known for his eccentricity, followed Turnavitu’s advice. When Mavrogheni went to war in 1788, he left Turnavitu as acting prince, angering the boyars.

Thin and unmistakably hairless, Turnavitu looked like an ancient-world ephebe. Despite his fragile appearance, he made frequent journeys to Istanbul without soldiers or weapons. Travelers recognized him from afar by his red coat, marked on the back with a white bird with outstretched wings. He carried goods, passed fearlessly through bands of Pazvantoğlu’s men and traveled in a modest carriage that moved as fast as the wind. People said companions who tried to follow him disappeared along the way, prompting rumors that he was a demon who fed on them, or a sorcerer who could vanish. Hristache, a baker determined to write his story, pursued him in disguises ranging from an old beggar woman to a nun, and even hid in a bush. The effort eventually revealed much of what is known about Turnavitu.