The articles by John Wood (The Sunday Times, August 2) and the earlier one by Claudia Calleja (The Times, July 19) both referred to the Turkish prisoners detained in Malta between 1919 and 1920, including Mehmed Seref. They said that most of them were held either at Polverista Barracks in Cospicua or at the Lazzaretto on Manoel Island.

Three interesting words were identified: Basha, talyl and 1919, when these prisoners were brought to Malta- Denis Darmanin

Although I do not agree with the defacing caused by graffiti, since it is in itself a form of vandalism, decades if not centuries later, graffiti often serves as an unwritten page in history regarding events, regiments, soldiers, ships and many other aspects of our islands’ military and naval past.

Having visited Fort Manoel on many occasions before its restoration, I have spotted and recorded a number of graffiti, especially those depicting ships and others made by servicemen stationed in Malta.

The main gate of Fort Manoel is located on a curtain facing Valletta. On a section of the inner face of the curtain’s parapet, just before St Anthony Bastion begins, I recall noticing a number of stone blocks marked by eroded or chipped graffiti, most of them illegible.

However, one particular stone had a rectangular frame of some 30 cm by 20 cm carved into it, with what seemed to be graffiti in Arabic script. I often wondered what it meant or who inscribed them, as Fort Manoel was built some two centuries after the Great Siege of 1565.

Was their author one of those who were quartered at the fort during the plague outbreak between April 14, 1813, and January 29, 1814? Or one of the survivors of the sinking of S.S. Sardegna on November 25, 1908?

It was only after reading Wood’s article that I decided to ask my friend and colleague architect David Mallia, who had studied Arabic, if he could translate the script. He told me this was quite problematic due to erosion, the damage the stone had suffered and the shade on parts of the script. Two days later, however, he gave me an encouraging reply and said that the inscription was in Turkish, which although written in Arabic script, can have a different pronunciation and meaning.

Even though most of it was illegible, three interesting words were identified: Basha, talyl and the year 1919. That was when these Turkish prisoners were brought to Malta.

The rank of Pasha was an important one in the Ottoman Empire’s political system, and was usually granted to governors, generals and others of high rank.

The only contradiction is that since much of the Arab world at the time was under Ottoman rule, the title became used frequently in Arabic, but pronounced Basha due to the absence of the letter ‘p’ in Arabic. If correctly read, is Talyl Basha a name or a title?

This is what prompted me to share this information in the hope that someone who is familiar with this inscription had recorded the script. Unfortunately, this part of the parapet had many of its stones replaced and the one with the inscription is no longer there.

For those interested, Albert Farrugia wrote an excellent article that features postcards sent and received by some of these Turks held at Polverista Barracks, in Capital Philately, Vol. 22, No. 3 ( http://members.tip.net.au/~albfar/Turksih%20POWs%20CP%2022(3)%2004.pdf )

Of further interest is a commemorative tablet in one of the rooms on the first floor in the barracks block on the right facing the chapel. It reads:

‘Carmine Buttigieg
Maria Buttigieg
Paul Buttigieg
Famiglia
Refugiata
Di Smirne
17 Settembre 1929

Did this family form part of the thousands of refugees who had escaped the destruction of Smyrna in September 1922 when the Turkish Army under Mustapha Kemal (Atatürk) marched into the city and some 300,000 were alleged to have been killed, including the Greek Orthodox Archbishop Chrysostomos?