unity is secured by the controlling authority of the muphty, 

 from whom depend all the appointments of the priesthood. 

 Of all the offices in the State his alone is held for life ; he is 

 the oracle of the law, and the representative of the sultan 

 in the exercise of his spiritual authority : and, as all new 

 laws, and even the question of peace or war must await his 

 sanction, he participates in the legislative power of the 

 prince, and interferes with all the movements of govern- 

 ment. The privileges common to all the Ulemas are ex- 

 emptions from taxes and arbitrary impositions; from the 

 punishment of death, and from arbitrary confiscations; 

 precious prerogatives in a country where death and confisca- 

 tion are the usual methods which the monarch pursues to 

 fill his treasuries and enjoy his power ! It appears from the 

 Turkish historians, that it is only within the last two cen- 

 turies that the Ulemas have had the uncontested enjoy- 

 ment of these rights; but the most singular advantage 

 gained by the steady encroachments of this juridical priest- 

 hood, is the establishment of an aristocracy, which assures 

 to a few families the hereditary and almost exclusive enjoy- 

 ment of the principal offices of the magistracy, and obliges 

 the sultan to conform to the routine of the profession. He 

 could formerly select the muphty from among all the 

 members of the order indiscriminately, but his choice is 

 now confined to the first class of the Muderis of Con- 

 stantinople. 



In a country where every transaction is coloured with a 

 show of justice and religion, such a body as the Ulemas 

 must necessarily enjoy a high degree of consideration ; and 

 the superiority of their education confirms to them that 

 ascendancy which the people are willing to concede to the 

 interpreters of the Koran. They are sufficiently enlightened 

 to understand their interests; the prerogatives which they 

 defend are of the most solid and important nature; their 

 chiefs are bound to them by the strongest ties, or are 

 proved by a long noviciate and repeated trials; they unite 

 the firmness of an aristocracy to the spirit of a profession ; 

 in fine, their influence has such a naturally good founda- 

 tion, and is so artfully fortified, that it would be hardly 

 possible to overturn it. But all the advantages which 



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