917 



TURKEY. 



TURKEY. 



918 



life-euard. The beyler-bey vizir has been substituted for the bostanji- 

 bashi, a dignity which was abolished, like tbat of the miri-'alem men- 

 tioned above. The army, foot as well as horse, is divided into ' ferik,' 

 or divisions commanded by a ferik-pasha. Each ferik is divided into 

 ' liwa,' or brigades commanded by a miri-liwa-pasha ; a liwa contains 

 two ' alai,' or regiments commanded by a miri-ilai-bey, or colonel ; an 

 ,'ilai is composed of four ' tabur,' or battalions, commanded by a bin- 

 bashi, or major ; each tabur has eight 'buluk,' or companies, com- 

 manded by a yiiz-bashi, or captain ; and a buluk is composed of eight 

 ' on.' or sections, each commanded by an on-bashi, or corporal. The 

 military force of the porte, according to its new organisation, consists 

 of 80 regiments composing the active army, which numbers 1 78,680 

 men ; and a reserve (redif ) of 148,630 men, making a total of 327,360 

 men, including infantry, cavalry, and all grades. This number how- 

 ever, does not include the contingents of the tributary provinces, or 

 of those parts of the empire that are not yet subject to the regular 

 recruiting law ; neither does it comprise the irregular troops or occa- 

 sional auxiliaries raised in emergencies of the empire. 



At the beginning of 1 853 the Turkish navy was composed of 6 men- 

 of-war carrying 130 to 74 guns each ; 10 frigates, with 60 to 40 gnns 

 each ; 6 corvettes, with 26" to 22 guns each ; 14 brigs, carrying 20 to 

 12 guns each; 16 cutters, schooners, Ac., with 12 to 4 guns each ; 6 

 steam-frigate*, of 800 to 450 horse-power ; and 12 corvettes and smaller 

 vessels in all 70 vessels, manned by 3400 sailors and 4000 marines. 

 Several of these vessels however were destroyed by the Russian fleet, 

 under Admiral Nachimoff, off Sinope, November 30, 1853. 



All the officers, attendants, soldiers, and servants employed in the 

 seraglio amounted in former time* to 12,000 ' swords,' that is, ' men,' 

 beside* the females : the number of ' swords ' has been in recent times 

 greatly diminished. The first officer of the harem (a word which 

 signifies ' the apartment of the women '), and of the whole seraglio of 

 the Sultan, is the Kislar-Agha (' the master of the girls '), who is also 

 called Babes-SeadetrAgha, or ' master of the door of happiness.' He 

 has under him many subordinate officers. The women of the harem 

 are divided into five classes: 1, Kaxlin, or 'wives of the sultan,' 

 in number from four to seven ; 2, Gediklu, or ' chamber-maids,' among 

 whom the Sultan usually chooses his kiidin. Those who are pre- 

 ferred by the Sultan are called Ikbal, or ' children of happiness ;' and 

 Khass-odalik, or ' private women of the sultan.' In Europe they are 

 generally called Odalisk, which is not correct S, CsUC, or ' mistress ,' 

 generally called KbalfYih, or 'attendants,' divided into ' takim.' or 

 companies of thirty women each; 4, Shagird, or 'apprentices;' 6, 

 Jariyeh, or ' slaves. 



Mahmud II. also introduced many remarkable chance* into the 

 system of scientific education. He improved the school for engineers 

 founded by Selim III., and he founded school for architect*, and 

 another for student* of medicine : the tatter are taught Turkish, 

 Arabic, and French; anatomy, physiology, materia medica, and 

 therapeutics ; physics and chemistry. 



The ordinary revenue of Turkey, according to K. Ubieini, is 

 6,724, 400/. sterling, derived from tithes, land-tax, poll-tax, customs 

 duties, indirect taxes, 276,000*. from the Egyptian tribute, 18,4002. from 

 Wallachia, the same amount from Servia, and 9,2002. of tribute from 

 Moldavia. The ordinary expenditure is stated at 6,922,0002., composed 

 of the following sums : Cilvil lint of the Sultan, 700,0001. ; allowances 

 to the Sultan's mother and sisters, 67,2802. ; army, 2,760,0002. ; navy, 

 845,0001 ; artillery, fortresses, 4c., 276,0002. ; public functionaries, 

 1,794,0002. ; grants for works of public utility, 92,0002. ; religion* 

 establishment*, 115,0002. ; subvention to the Ottoman bank, 276,0002.; 

 life-annuities in compensation of fiefs, 404,8002. 



Inhabitant*. The inhabitants are divided into two great classes 

 the Turks, or, more correctly, Turks-Osmanlix, who are the ruling 

 race ; and the Kayas, that is, ' the flock,' who are the ancient inhabit- 

 ant-! of the countries conquered by the Turks-Osmanlis. The Rayas, 

 who are Christians, except some pagan tribes, are subject to the 

 capitation or poll-tax, which the Osmanlis do not pay : they have the 

 exercise of thi-ir religion with some restrictions, and they are dressed 

 in a different way from the Turks. In general the Rayas, although 

 they form communities and have their local authorities, are entirely 

 in the position and have all the disadvantages of a subdued race. The 

 Rayas are far more numerous than the Turks, especially in Europe : 

 they belong to different nations. Several nations which have an origin 

 different from that of the Turks-Osmanlia are nevertheless not reckoned 

 among the Rayas, because they have adopted the Mohammedan religion. 

 To this class belong a great number of Kurd, Arabic, and Tartar 

 tribes, the Mohammedan Bosniaks, and the Albanians, the inhabitants 

 of ancient Epiru. Foreigners in Turkey are considered as Kayas, 

 but they are protected by the authority of their ambassadors and 

 consuls. In 1839 an imperial decree was issued, by which great 

 privileges were granted to the Rayas, especially with regard to the 

 administration of justice between them and the Turks, and the payment 

 of taxes. This decree, which introduced the tanzimat or reformed 

 system into the empire, has remained a dead letter in most of the 

 provinces. It is opposed by the Turks, who have so long enjoyed an 

 ascendancy over the Rayas, nnd who have- risen in rebellion in some 

 of the provinces in defence of their old privileges. Since the outbreak 

 of the war with Russia, the Sultan and his government have given 

 repeated orders for the strict execution of the tanzimat, which, h 



carried fairly out, will put an end to all the grievances of which the 

 Christians have long and justly complained. By a special decree in 

 1855, the Sultan ordered the reception of the evidence of Christians 

 by the tribunals. 



Hiitory. The Turks-Osmanlia are a branch of the Asiatic Turks, 

 who are thinly spread over an immense extent of Asia, from the 

 desert of Gobi to the shores of the Mediterranean, and from the 

 northern part of Siberia to the Persian Gulf. In some parts, as in. 

 South Siberia, in Turkistao, and in the greater part of Asia Minor, 

 they form a compact population ; in others, as in Syria, Armenia, and 

 Mesopotamia, they are much less numerous than the original inhabit- 

 ants. In Europe the Turkish population is compact in Rum-ili, and 

 in the government of Kazan and some adjacent tracts in Eastern 

 Russia, In Africa there are only a few Turks-Osmanlis. 



Herodotus (iv. 22) mentions a nation by the name of Iure;c ('Ivpxcu), 

 which probably lived south-west of the present town of Kiew. A 

 nation which lived in the same country is named Turece, or Turks, by 

 Pliny (' Hist. Nat.,' vi 7) and Pomponius Mela (i. 19). Some have 

 proposed in the above-mentioned passage of Herodotus to read Tvpxat, 

 instead of 'Ivpmu. But the names are the same, and Yuriik, or 

 Yuruk, is still the well-known name of all nomadic Turks in Asia 

 Minor and Persia. Strabo mentions a nation called Urgi (Olpyot), 

 which occupied nearly the same tract as the lurceie and Turcae. 



The general opinion is, that the Turks became first known to the 

 Europeans through the Byzantines, in the 4th or 5th century ; they 

 were known to the Chinese however several centuries before there was 

 an historian in Europe. 



The Turks have been divided from the remotest times into a number 

 of different tribes, the most remarkable of which in connection with 

 the Turks-Osmanlis were the Oghuzes, the Seljuks, and the Osmanlis. 



1. Oyktun. Tradition says that Oghuz-khan, the son of Karri khan, 

 a descendant of Turk, who is the common ancestor of all the Turks, 

 was a mighty king in the time of Abraham. His empire was the 

 country called Turkistan [TURKISTAN], known to the Persians by 

 the name of Turin. Under his successors the empire was divided : 

 three khans, ' the three arrows,' ruled over the eastern Oghuzes, and 

 extended their dominions towards China; three other khans, 'the 

 three breakers,' were masters over the western Oghuzes, around the 

 Oxus and the J aim-ten. The first of these ' three breakers ' was the 

 ' khan of the mountains : ' he is the ancestor of the younger Oghuzes, 

 or that part of the Oghuzes which preserved their name in later times, 

 and of the Turkomans. The second was the ' khan of the sea,' the 

 ancestor of the Seljuks ; and the third was the ' khan of the heaven, 

 the ancestor of the tribe Kayi, from which are descended the Osmanlis. 

 For many centuries the Oghuzes were perpetually at war with the 

 Persians, and afterwards with the Arabs, who (A.D. 711) conquered 

 Bokhara and Samarcand. Boghra-khan Harun extended his dominions 

 as far as China (999). His empire was broken up by civil troubles 

 during the llth century, and became a prey to the Seljuks. 



2. SdjvJct. Their ancestor Seljuk was a mighty under-khan of the 

 Oghuzes, and lived towards the end of the loth century. The influ- 

 ence of his family increased during the civil troubles by which the 

 empire of the Oghuzes was shaken after the death of Boghra-khan 

 Martin. Toghrul-Bey, his grandson, who lived in the middle of the 

 llth century, was an independent Mohammedan prince. His power 

 was felt at Baghdad, whose kalif, Al Kayim, he saved from the 

 ambitious designs of his son Besasiri, who was put to death by order 

 of the khan of the Seljuks. The kalif rewarded his liberator with 

 the title and power of the Amiru-1-omra, or ' prince of the princes : ' 

 he married a sister of the khan, and Toghrul-Bey married a daughter 

 of the kalif. In 1069 Toghrul-Bey was succeeded by his nephew 

 Alp-ArsUn, who also married a daughter of the tilif Al-Kayim. 

 Alp-Arslan conquered a large part of Tnrkistan, tho north-western 

 part of Persia, Armenia, Georgia, Mesopotamia, and Syria. He was 

 involved in long wars with the Greeks, which he terminated success- 

 fully, 1071, by a victory over the emperor Romanus, who became a 

 captive of the Turks. Alp-Arsltin's son and successor, Melek-Shah, 

 conquered the greater part of Asia Minor. His successors were the 

 masters of Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, part of Persia, 

 and Western Turkistan, during 130 years. Towards the end of the 

 13th century, their power was broken by civil dissensions. Mesud, 

 who died in 1297, was only the shadow of a king. 'AlK-ed-dln II., his 

 successor, was the last Sultan of the empire of the Seljuks. He was 

 killed by the Mongols in 1307, and the Seljukian monarchy was 

 divided into the following states, all, except one, governed by princes 

 of the tribe of the Seljuks. 



Kiinlsi became master of Mysia ; Sard-khan nnd A'idin reigned each 

 in a part of Lydia ; Menteshe in Caria ; Teke in Lycia and Pamphylia ; 

 Hamid in Pisidia and Isanria ; Kardmttn, the most powerful of all, 

 was Lord of Lycaonia, and reigned as Snltnu in the city of Koniah, 

 once the capital of the Seljukian empire ; K'rmiitn founded a petty 

 state in northern Phrygia ; Ghazi Chelebi, tho only one among these 

 princes who was descended from the reigning dynasty of the Seljuks, 

 led the life of a pirate at Sinope and Hcraclea on the Black Sea, 

 Another tribe, which had lately arrived in thee western countries, 

 had subdued Galatta and Bithynia ; this was the tribe of the Turks- 

 Osmanlis. 



Turki-Otmanlit. SoUman-Shah, the son of Kay-nip, the chief of 



