1823.] [ 185 ] 



MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. 



The Establishment of the Turks in Eu- 

 rope ; 1828. This is an historical dis- 

 course, the facts of which were originally 

 collected, the author says, for the purpose 

 of illustrating the history of Europe, and 

 which is now published because it contains, 

 in a small compass, what is presumed to be 

 a correct account of the government of an 

 important and interesting part of the world, 

 for more than three centuries. The publi- 

 cation is obviously well-timed, and accom- 

 plishes what it professes in a very distinct 

 and unostentatious form. It may safely be 

 assigned to the author of the State of Eu- 

 rope from the Peace of Utrecht. 



The discourse commences with the cap- 

 ture of Constantinople, and the conduct of 

 Mahomet on his entrance, which is repre- 

 sented in somewhat more favourable colours 

 than is done by Knolles, whom the writer 

 justly enough considers as a credulous old 

 goose notwithstanding Dr. Johnson's un- 

 accountable eulogies. The Greek histories 

 talk of merciless cruelties, and the Turks of 

 forbearance and generosity, from which the 

 author infers blood was not very profusely 

 shed. Nevertheless, severities enough were 

 inflicted ; 60,000 Greeks were thrown into 

 a state of slavery, and their religion, its 

 temples, its altars, its ministers, treated 

 with mockery and insult. Under separate 

 heads, the writer proceeds at Targe to inquire 

 into the extent of the Turkish conquests- 

 the character and genius of the conquerors 

 the causes of their success the kind of go- 

 vernment they established, and the causes 

 which arrested their career, and led to their 

 decline. He pretends to no novelty, nor to 

 a command of any but the common sources 

 of information; he relies solely on D'Obisson, 

 Thornton, Busbek, Volney, and other travel- 

 lers in the East, exercising only his own judg- 

 ment, which, though neither very subtle nor 

 sagacious, perhaps, is evidently a sound one. 



Under the first head, after stating the 

 amount of Mahomet's conquests, he details 

 the fate of Athens and the defence of Rhodes 

 the two most memorable events of his 

 reign, next to the fall of the city of Con- 

 stantine ; to which he adds, a hasty glance 

 of his son Bajazet's victories in the Morea, 

 on the Danube and the Niester, and his 

 grandson Selim's successes in Egypt, by 

 which the Turkish empire was established 

 in 1519. II. The character of the Turk 

 he describes as being that of the pastoral 

 and warlike nations by turns active and 

 indolent cruel and merciful as fond of 

 the repose of luxury as the tumults of war 

 temperate in his mode of liying an implicit 

 votary of the prophet, and contemner of the 

 institutions of other nations. Though frank 

 and sincere, too barbarous to entertain any 

 very high reverence for the sacredness of 

 treaties and promises, especially with in- 



M.M. New Series VOL. V. No. 26. 



fidels venal and corrupt, but not without 

 the virtues of the savage, generosity and 

 hospitality. In dress and appearance, he is 

 widely different from the Europeans, nor is 

 the difference less in fact and substance. 

 The Turk is stirred by few passions, and 

 those few carry him straight to his object 

 if revengeful, he takes away the life of his 

 enemy -if avaricious, he seizes the posses- 

 sions of 4he weaker if amorous, he buys 

 and shuts up his mistress. Of the compli- 

 cated intrigue, the perpetual bustle, the va- 

 rying opinions, which influence the business 

 of life in our northern countries, he has no 

 conception. Still less can he imagine the 

 active society, the distinctions of rank, the 

 jealousies of rivalry, the conversations with 

 nothing to say the toys, by which vanity 

 must be flattered, and the love of novelty 

 be gratified. The activity of commerce, 

 the ardour of science, the desire of distinc- 

 tion, the patient advances of industry, the 

 thirst for notoriety, and the favours of public 

 opinion these, which are what distinguish 

 civilized society, are all unknown to the 

 Turk, or despised by him. The absence of 

 women from society, and the doctrines of 

 Mahomet, are successfully traced in their 

 influence on the character of the Turk. 



III. Their successes are attributable 

 mainly to the operation of their religion. 

 The virtues enforced were such as were cal- 

 culated to make effective soldiers justice to 

 each other abstinence from wine cleanli- 

 ness praying together and fasting together. 

 Desertion was the most deadly offence, and 

 felicity awaited those who perished in battle 

 victory or paradise : every Mussulman 

 was a soldier ; his law commanded him to 

 make war on the infidel, and the infidel, 

 when conquered, formed a separate and a 

 degraded cast. The conquered lands, to the 

 amount of a third, were distributed among 

 officers and men the greater divisions, of 

 500 acres and more, were called ziamets ; the 

 less, from 300 to 500, timars. The possessors 

 the Ziams and Timariots were bound by 

 tenure to attend the summons of the Sultan, 

 and the possessions were not hereditary. 

 All depended on the will of the sovereign ; 

 there were no distinctions of nobility the 

 meanest might aspire to the place next the 

 sovereign. The difficulties, however, at last, 

 of enforcing the service due by tenure, led, 

 as every where else, to the establishment of 

 regular troops the Janizaries. These were 

 originally the youth of the conquered coun- 

 "tries ; but afterwards, every fifth child, or 

 the children of every fifth year, were taken 

 from the Christians, and brought up as 

 Mahometans. Some were attached to the 

 person of the Sultan, others, to the pa- 

 lace, to the arsenal, the dock-yards ; they 

 became favourites; their privileges aug- 

 mented ; sn-esprit de corps was encouraged 



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