TURKEY (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE). 



701 



ers. The administiation of government is also Ori- 

 ental. The grand vizier rules in the name of the 

 sultan, or, in his absence, the caimachan. The in- 

 trigues of the women and the eunuchs in the 

 seraglio have also much influence. The supreme 

 council of state, the divan, is held in the second 

 hall of the seraglio, under the presidency of the 

 grand vizier. The ordinary divan consists of the 

 highest officers of the empire (the kiaga beg, the 

 reis effendi, the deftardar, or minister of finances, 

 the capudan pacha, or high admiral, the tchaush- 

 bashi, or minister of the executive), and the agas 

 of the troops; to the extraordinary divan, several 

 other persons are called, particularly the mufti. 



The provinces, with the exception of Moldavia, 

 Wallachia, and Servia, and the two cities of Istam- 

 bul (Constantinople), and Edreneh (Adrianople), 

 are divided into twenty-five ejalets, pachalics, or 

 governments, with 290 sangiacs or banners ; the 

 pachas of Rum-Hi, Anadoli (Natolia), and Damas- 

 cus, bear the title of beglerbeg, and have three horse 

 tails carried before them. The capudan pacha, or 

 high admiral, enjoys the same honour ; and other 

 pachas have but two tails. The pachas in the pro- 

 vinces have their divans similar to the sultan's. In 

 other respects, unless the powerful ulema opposes 

 them, their authority is without control, and their 

 only duty is to pay the contributions to the grand 

 seignior. Yet they are sometimes removed from 

 their places, when the people are driven to rebel- 

 lion by oppression, or when the ulema is hostile to 

 them ; sometimes, also, to punish their pride, or 

 from suspicion, or to confiscate their property. In 

 June, 1827, the pachas in the provinces lost their 

 right of civil administration, and civil governors 

 were sent to supersede them. In military matters 

 every pachalic is divided into sangiacs. The pa- 

 chalics are likewise divided into moslemlics, woi- 

 wodolics, and agalics. In some countries there are 

 moslemlics and agalics, entirely independent of the 

 "pacha, the rulers of which, with the exception of 

 administering justice, exercise all the rights of 

 sovereigns : some of these places are given for per- 

 petuity to certain families. 



The source of all civil, political, and criminal law 

 is the Koran. In addition to the code of laws 

 (Moulteca*), the interpretations of the ulema have 

 great weight in the tribunals. The mufti is not 

 only the chief of the priests, but the highest inter- 

 preter of the laws. His decisions (fetvas) are col- 

 lected. The highest tribunal, the divan chaneb, is 

 held four times a-week by the grand vizier, in his 

 palace, or, in his absence, by the tchaush-baschi. 

 In the lower tribunals of the large cities, the mollas 

 sit, in those of small towns, the cadis. The moslems 

 are, under them, the executors of the sentences. 

 The administration of justice is as simple as it is 

 prompt and energetic. The common punishments 

 are the bastinado, hanging, drowning, strangling, 

 and impaling. Bearing false witness is the greatest 

 crime. 



At the head of the church stands the sultan, as 

 caliph, and, in his name, the mufti, who is appointed 

 and deposed by the grand seignior. In the larger 

 cities, the mufti appoints under muftis. After him 

 the cadileskis, mollas, and cadis, are the most im- 

 portant members of the ulema. The priests are 

 divided into secular and monastic. The former 

 (the imans, danishmends, and talismans) perform 

 the public religious ceremonies in the mosques, 

 dshamis (temples built by the grand seignior in the 

 capital cities), and mcdsheds. (See Mosques.) 



The latter, the dervises, form about thirty different 

 orders or brotherhoods. All other religious sects, 

 though despised and insulted, are allowed the free 

 exercise of their religion in their temples, and under 

 their patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops. 



The revenues of the state flow into the miri, or 

 public treasury, and amount to about eighty-four 

 purses, or 4,500,000. They are drawn from the 

 karadsch (a poll-tax upon unbelievers, and a tax 

 upon their real estate), from the tithes which the 

 moslems pay for the support of the church, from 

 the taxes upon property, the customs, monopolies, 

 mines, the mint, taxes in the provinces, and the 

 tribute of the hospodars of Moldavia, Walachia, 

 and Servia. The miri has a debt of about 70,000,000 

 florins. Distinct from this is the itsch hazne, or 

 treasury of the sultan, which is filled by the rents 

 of estates, by presents and extortions, and by the 

 confiscated property of the great officers. 



The land forces, were, until recently, organized 

 on a miserable Asiatic system, and amounted, ac- 

 cording to Marsigli, to 220,000 men ; of whom 

 74,000 were mercenaries, 59,000 infantry (see Ja- 

 nizaries'), toptshis, or artillery, and others, and 

 15,000 cavalry. (See Sipahis,*) There were, be- 

 sides, in time of war, the bands of feudal vassals, 

 amounting to 126,000 men, the contingent of the 

 Tartars, 12,000, and that of the Moldavians and Wa- 

 lachians, 8000. The grand vizier is commander-in- 

 chief ; the separate corps are commanded by agas, 

 the provincial troops by pachas and sangiacs. The 

 present sultan, with more success than Selim III., 

 has begun, since 1814, to form an army on the Eu- 

 ropean plan, and, in the year 1826, dissolved the 

 body of the janizaries throughout the kingdom. 

 Selim III. formed a mathematical school for the 

 officers of the navy, which consists of ten ships of 

 the line, twenty frigates, and thirty smaller ships, 

 commanded by the capudan pacha. Tunis and Tri- 

 poli are still nominally dependent on Turkey. Al- 

 giers is now in the hands of the French. 



See Von Hammer's Constitution and Administra- 

 tion of the Ottoman Empire (in German, 2 vols., 

 Vienne, 1815), and his History of the Ottoman Em- 

 pire, drawn from original sources (in German, 7th 

 vol., Pest, 1831) ; Palla's Histoire abregee de I'Em- 

 pire Ottoman (Paris, 1825). Marsigli has given an 

 account of the military, and Mouradgea d'Ohsson of 

 the ecclesiastical establishments. Of the Tableau 

 generate de V Empire Ottoman, par M. d'Ohsson, 

 the first four parts appeared in five volumes (Paris, 

 1788 and 1790) ; the fifth, sixth, and seventh parts 

 complete the work (Paris, 1824). The writings of 

 Tott, lady Montague, Olivier, Eton, and Thornton, 

 together with the accounts of later travellers, 

 Clarke, Von Hammer (Constantinople and the Bos- 

 phorus), Forbin, Choiseul-Gouffier, Pouqueville, J. 

 Came (Letters from the East, London, 1826, 3 

 vols.), and others serve to give a correct idea of 

 this empire, composed of various nations and coun- 

 tries, the fragments and ruins of the ancient world. 



Turkish Language and Literature. The Turks 

 are of Tartar origin, and their language is a Tartar 

 dialect. It is entirely different from the Arabic, 

 as well as the Persian, and from the languages re- 

 lated to these. The Turkish language is sonorous, 

 but at the same time rough and harsh. The East- 

 ern nations have various sayings to indicate the 

 character of the principal languages of Western 

 Asia, the Arabic, Persian and Turkish; for in- 

 stance, the Arabic, language, they say, persuades ; 

 the Persian flatters ; the Turkish reproves ; the 



