416 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 



edifices by which it is surrounded are not of uniform 

 height, and are, in part, ornamented with colonnades. 

 In the centre of the court is a beautiful fountain, 

 surrounded by cypresses and wild mulberry-trees. 

 The most important of the edifices comprised in this 

 court is the divan. To this succeeds the third court, 

 into which Turks only are admitted, and none, even 

 of these, who do not belong to the court, or are not 

 especially commanded to enter. The ambassadors 

 pass, by a covered way, from the divan to the 

 audience-chamber of tin- sultan, which is in the real 

 seraglio, and is a splendid apartment, although 

 small and dark. Beyond this lie the apartments of the 

 sultan and his wives, into which it is not allowable 

 to enter. Externally are discoverable a number of 

 liirge, irregular edifices, which are surmounted by 

 cupolas covered with lead. Besides this chief serag- 

 lio, there is also, in the centre of the city, the Eski 

 Serai, built by Mohammed II., in which were shut 

 up the wives and slaves of the deceased sultans, who 

 liave, however, the privilege of marrying and leaving 

 it, if they choose. 



The number of dschamis and mosques in Con- 

 stantinople amounts to near 509. Among these, the 

 oldest and most remarkable is the former church of 

 St Sophia, founded by Justinian, which is 270 feet in 

 length by 240 in breadth. No one, who is not a 

 Mussulman, can enter this without express permis- 

 sion from the sultan. The cupola is supported by 

 pillars covered with marble. In this large cupola 

 are comprehended eight half cupolas. The floor is 

 covered with porphyry, verd antique, and rich car- 

 pets. From without, nothing is discernible but 

 unsightly masses of building ; the various irregular 

 parts, of which it is composed, have no symmetry ; 

 the dome alone rises majestically above it. The four 

 minarets, which were added by Selim II., stand in- 

 sulated, have each a different form, and resemble 

 Gothic towers. Next to this in celebrity, are the 

 mosques of Selim, Mahmoud, Achmet, Soliman, the 

 sultana Valide, the mother of Mohammed VI., and of 

 Bajazet. 



There are five thousand oratories (metscheds), be- 

 sides twenty-three Greek, three Armenian, one Rus- 

 sian, and nine Catholic churches ; a hundred and 

 thirty public baths ; eleven academies, in which six- 

 teen hundred young Turks are educated at the sultan's 

 expense, for the future service of the church and 

 state ; five hundred and eighteen high establishments 

 for education (medrese),m which the pupils are support- 

 ed and instructed gratis ; thirteen hundred children's 

 schools ; thirteen public libraries, none of which, 

 however, contains over two thousand manuscripts, 

 and none any printed books. There are, also, many 

 caravansaries ; a mathematical and nautical school ; 

 Turkish, Jewish, and Armenian printing-offices ; and 

 a great number of coffee-houses, ornamented in the 

 Chinese style, and singularly painted, in which peo- 

 ple of all classes mix together, many of whom smoke, 

 in the course of the day, thirty or forty pipes of to- 

 bacco, and drink as many cups of coffee. To the 

 class of public houses belong, also, the teriak-hane, 

 or opium-booths, where the guests generally assemble 

 in the evening, chew their pills of opium, drink a 

 glass of cold water, and await the intoxicating re- 

 sults. 



The manufactories supply morocco, cotton, silk and 

 linen cloths, carpets, harness, pocket-books, arms of 

 various sorts (including bows and arrows), gold, sil- 

 ver, and embroidery. There is no want of dyers, 

 stone-cutters, jewellers, &c. Trade is chiefly con- 

 ducted in the khans and bazars. In the latter are to 

 be found merchants from all parts of the Turkish do- 

 minions. These bazars are large buildings of stone. 

 One of them, the Misr chartsche, or Egyptian market, 



contains goods from Cairo, especially minerals and 

 medicines. Other parts of the bazar are occupied by 

 jewellers and booksellers, who keep for sale Turkish, 

 Persian, and Arabian manuscripts. For the most 

 part, particular articles are to be found in particular 

 streets : thus the dealers in furs, the shoe-makers, 

 and pipe-makers, have each their own streets. The 

 bazars will well repay the trouble of visiting them. 

 Two kiayas, or deputies appointed by the govern- 

 ment, superintend the management for these reposi- 

 tories and answer for any theft or disorder committed 

 within the walls. The buildings are all fire-proof, 

 and are the places where wealthy Turks deposit their 

 most valuable property, and where sales by auction 

 are held. The charshis are used for the retail trade. 

 These are an immense assemblage of shops, where 

 all the different trades are carried on, and almost 

 everything requisite for food, clothing, or furniture. 

 may be purchased. These endless rows of stalls 

 along each side of a covered street, wherein the 

 article is often manufactured as well as sold, present 

 a constant succession of novel objects, and the motley 

 throng of purchasers is amusing and instructive. 

 Sedate Turks, saturnine Armenians, swaggering 

 Ghaliyonjis, saucy Franks, thin-bearded Arabs, Bos- 

 tanjis, with their long-tailed scarlet caps, dervishes, 

 crowned with dirty caps, that look like extinguishers, 

 are all crowded tegether, each driving his own bar- 

 gain, and betraying, by his physiognomy and gestures, 

 the characteristics of his calling, nation, and habits. 



Constantinople, besides the many splendid and 

 spacious mosques with which it is adorned, can boast 

 of hospitals, alms-houses, schools, colleges, and pub- 

 lic libraries, such as rival the rich institutions found- 

 ed by the caliphs of Bagdad and Cairo, and surpass 

 any now existing in other parts of the Mohammedan 

 world. The Turkish baths contain three spacious 

 apartments, one within the other, paved with marble, 

 and lighted by holes in the dome above, filled with 

 coloured glass. In the first chamber, the attendants 

 prepare the linen and other articles used by the 

 bathers. In the second, the visitors undress, and 

 fasten round their waists a thin covering, which 

 hangs down to the ankles. They then enter the third 

 room with high wooden clogs on their feet, to pro- 

 tect them from the floor, which is heated by vapours 

 from a caldron immediately beneath. The bather 

 is stretched out upon a raised platform, and the 

 attendant scours him well with cold and warm water, 

 rubbing him with keffeh-kil, a perfumed sapona- 

 ceous earth. Numbers of persons of the same sex 

 bathe together, but everything is conducted with the 

 strictest regard to decency. The baths are open to 

 women in the day-time, and to men at night. A 

 clean shirt is thrown over the bather, and a handker- 

 chief tied round his head, as soon as his ablution is 

 completed, and he returns into the antechamber, 

 called jamekan (dressing-room), where a clean bed is 

 ready for him, and he falls into a refreshing slumber, 

 accompanied by a luxurious sensation of repose, 

 hardly conceivable by those who have not enjoyed it. 

 Shampooing is seldom used by the Turks, except in 

 the case of women a short time after confinement. 

 Among the European nations, the Italians, Russians, 

 British, and French (all called Franks), are those 

 which trade here the most. In the neighbourhood of 

 Constantinople lies Eyoub, a town, or, rather a sub- 

 urb of the city with a mosque, in which the new 

 sultan is publicly guarded with his sword, which is 

 equivalent to the ceremony of coronation ; Buyuk- 

 dere (q. v.), Belgrade, formerly the residence of the 

 ambassadors in summer, but at present deserted, on 

 account of the unwholesomeness of the air ; Fondukli, 

 with a fortress, Dulmach Backtsche (the garden of 

 melons) ; an imperial palace, in the Chinese style : 



