mpalement
This mode of execution comes from the Orient. A Neo-Assyrian relief from the 7th century BC depicts the impalement of Judean prisoners.
It was in frequent use in Turkey, especially after the 15th century AD. A historically accurate description of an impalement in the then Turkish province of Bosnia ca. 1570 was given by the Nobel-prize winning author Ivo Andric in his novel The Bridge on the Drina:[1]
[There] was an oak stake about eight feet long, pointed as was necessary and tipped with iron, quite thin and sharp, and all well greased with lard. On the scaffolding were the blocks between which the stake would be embedded and nailed, a wooden mallet for the impalement, ropes and everything else that was needed. […] Without another word the peasant lay down as he had been ordered, face downward. The gipsies approached and the first bound his hands behind his back; then they attached a cord to each of his legs, around the ankles. Then they pulled outwards and to the side, stretching his legs wide apart. Meanwhile Merdžan [the executioner] placed the stake on two small wooden chocks so that it pointed between the peasant’s legs. Then he took from his belt a short broad knife, knelt beside the stretched-out man and leant over him to cut away the cloth of his trousers and to widen the opening through which the stake would enter the body. […] As soon as he had finished, [Merdžan] leapt up, took the wooden mallet and with slow measured blows began to strike the lower blunt end of the stake. Between each two blows he would stop for a moment and look first at the body in the stake was penetrating and then at the two gipsies, reminding them to pull slowly and evenly. The body of the peasant, spread-eagled, writhed convulsively; at each blow of the mallet his spine twisted and bent, but the cords pulled at it and kept it straight. […] At every second blow [Merdžan] went over to the stretched-out body and leant over it to see whether the stake was going in the right direction and when he had satisfied himself that it had not touched any of the more important internal organs, he returned and went on with his work.
For a moment the hammering ceased. Merdžan now saw that close to the right shoulder muscles the skin was stretched and swollen. He went forward quickly and cut the swollen place with two crossed cuts. Pale blood flowed out, at first slowly and then faster and faster. Two or three more blows, light and careful, and the iron-shod point of the stake began to break through at the place where he had cut. He struck a few more times until the point of the stake reached level with the right ear. The man was impaled on the stake as a lamb on the spit, only the tip did not come through the mouth but in the back and had not seriously damaged the intestines, the heart or the lungs. Then Merdžan threw down the mallet and came nearer. He looked at the unmoving body, avoiding the blood which poured out of the places where the stake had entered and had come out again and was gathering in little pools on the planks. The two gipsies turned the stiffened body on its back and began to bind the legs to the foot of the stake. Meanwhile Merdžan looked to see if the man were still alive and carefully examined the face that had suddenly become swollen, wider and larger. […] Since the man could no longer control some of his facial muscles the face looked like a mask. But the heart beat heavily and the lungs worked with short, quickened breath. The two gipsies began to lift him up like a sheep on a spit. Merdžan shouted to them to take care and not shake the body; he himself went to help them. Then they embedded the lower, thicker end of the stake between two beams and fixed it there with huge nails […].
The English traveller Peter Mundy, who witnessed an impalement in Istanbul in 1620, made a drawing depicting it, as well as certain other punishments used in Turkey at the time.[2] Impalement is shown at the centre of the painting. The punishment shown below is beating on the soles of the feet, known as falaqa, and above is the punishment by çengel.
