from Persia by Amurath IV., it does not appear to have 

 undergone any change or improvement. Prince Cantemir 

 wrote a treatise in Turkish on the theory of music, and set 

 to notes the most agreeable Persian airs, but so incapable 

 of improvement are these indocile barbarians, that at the 

 present day they hardly ever practise the musical notation. 



As every Turk who receives an education has some 

 acquaintance with the Arabic and Persian languages, he 

 has a ready access and introduction to all the learning of the 

 East. The number of those who possess these elementary 

 acquirements is very great, owing to the multitude of offices 

 connected with the law and religion, which can be filled 

 by those alone who have been qualified by a regular course 

 of study. From these circumstances, and from the great 

 literary ardour of the Arabians, who now 1 serve as models 

 to the Turks, we might expect to find among the latter a 

 great display of intellectual activity. But the fact is quite 

 the reverse ; Turkey is the desert of literature ; some scat- 

 tered antiquities, and a few stunted stems, detach them- 

 selves from the dreary waste, but there is little life, and no 

 variety. 



The great number of the public libraries in Constan- 

 tinople, however, has been adduced as a proof of the national 

 learning, and we feel required on that account to bestow 

 on them a short consideration. These libraries, according 

 to D'Ohsson, are thirty-five in number, but he gives no 

 particulars. Toderini enumerates thirteen ; Sekeria Efendi 

 fourteen; and a writer in Eichhorn's Geschichte der 

 Liter atur, whose authority we shall follow, makes them 

 amount to eighteen. 3 No works are arranged on the shelves 

 or included in the catalogues of these libraries except such 

 as are written in the languages of Islamism, Turkish, 

 Arabic and Persian ; if any others exist, they are thrown 

 into lumber chests and left to moulder in neglect. Of the 

 seven principal establishments, including that of the 

 Seraglio, we have exact details, and their united collections 



8 Some recent information, however, respecting these libraries (leading to 

 the belief that D'Ohsson's enumeration is not exaggerated) will be found in 

 the statements of Mr. Schultz, an eminent German orientalist now travelling 

 in the East, published in No. 1 (January, 1828,) of the Nouveau Journal 

 A&iatique. 



17 A3 



