U L E 



province of Suz, or Suft?, in Morocco, and feparated from 

 it by faiidy deferts. The emperor of Morocco arro- 

 gates to himfelf the fovereignty of Vied de Nun, but his 

 real authority is here extremely feeble. This vaft, but 

 defert, province affords not a fingle harbour or anchor- 

 ing-place along a coaft of 60 leagues, or quite to Cape 

 Bajador. It is inhabited by different tribes of Arabs, 

 whofe camps are fcattered over fuch parts of the interior 

 country as are capable of cultivation. The fide next the 

 fea is a fandy (hore, lined with rocks under water, over 

 which the waves break violently. Ships are often driven 

 on this coaft by rapid currents formed between the continent 

 and the Canary iflands, and Spanilh, Engliih, and French 

 velTels are frequently Ihipwrecked. When tiiefe difaftrous 

 events occur, the unhappy mariners are immediately feized 

 and ilripped by the Arabs, expofed to every kind of priva- 

 tion, bought and fold, or exchanged for camels, or other 

 beails, in the markets of the deferts. The province of 

 Vied de Nun has a confiderable trade. After having pafTed 

 the deferts that feparate it from Morocco, we find many 

 trafts of land capable of cultivation, and which produce 

 gums and excellent wax. As thefe people are fo far re- 

 moved from the reach of tyranny as to live in a kind of 

 independence, luxuries are more indulged among them ; and 

 they make uie of many European commodities, efpecially 

 linen. Several of thefe Arab tribes are more affable and 

 lioncft than the other Moors. They trade to Mogodor, 

 but with referve and circumfpeftion, that they may not ex- 

 pofe their riches to the uncertainty of accident. It is pro- 

 bable they have a m.ore immediate communication with the 

 factories of Senegal, with which they may trade with lefs 

 reftraint ; and it is only by their means that the weitern 

 Moors have any intercourfe w-ith the people of Nigritia. 

 If it were prafticable to form fettlements on the coaft of 

 Cape Bajador, a very profitable commerce might be efta- 

 blifhed with thefe Arabs ; and mariners, who might have 

 the misfortune to be fhipwrecked on the coaft, would he 

 able to obtain more certain and fpeedy afliftance ; but fuch 

 a plan is expofed to too many difficulties ever to be 

 realized. Chenicr's Morocco, vol. i. 



ULEMAS, the name by which the minifters and inter- 

 preters of religion are diftinguilhed in ths- Ottoman empire. 

 In Turkey they pofTefs the moft lucrative employments ; 

 they join judicial to religious power ; they are at the fame 

 time interpreters of religion and judges of all civil and cri- 

 minal affairs ; they are fecure from the extortions of the 

 pachas and great men of the empire ; they cannot be legally 

 put to death without the confent of their chief : their pro- 

 perty, after their deceafc, pafl'es as a right to their heirs, fo 

 that the imperial treafury cannot appropriate it to itfelf. 

 In fliort, they form a corporation, highly regarded, power- 

 ful, and fometimcs formidable to the throne itfelf, from their 

 having the direftion almoft always of public opinion, and 

 becaufe there is, perhaps, no government where public 

 opinion is pronounced with fo much ftrength and fuccefs as 

 in Turkey. Thefe magiflrates and doftors of the law muft 

 not be confounded with the iinams who fervc the mofqiies, 

 (fee Imam,) nor with the muezims ; which fee. 'I'he order 

 of ulemas, the moll refpeftable and bell informed in the 

 Ottoman empire, comprehends the mufti or muphli, the Li- 

 dilejkers or cadiUfchtrs, the Jlambol-efftntl't, and the mui/eris ; 

 which fee refpettively. The immediate minifters of reli- 

 gion, though they make no part of the body of ulemas, 

 may be admitted into it, either by undergoing examinations, 

 and getting themfelves received as muderis, or by obtaining 

 through favour a place of provincial mufti, of cadi, fir of 

 naib. If, after having occupied thefe employment.";, they 



Vol. XXXVII. 



U L E 



be admitted into the body of the muderi:, and wifh to paf» to 

 the mofque of Suhman, they may then arrive at the inolV 

 eminent places of judicature. The firfl rank among them is 

 that oi fchiek, or preacher, whofe fun6lion is to preach in 

 the molques every Friday after the noon prayer, and even 

 oftener when there are foundations for that purpofc. The 

 fcheiks of the fourteen imperial mofqucs of Conl^antinople 

 are the moft confidered in the empire, and are appointed by 

 the mufti ; thofe of the other mofques are named by thie 

 magiftrate of the place or of the diftrid. The khatibs have 

 no other employment befides that of difcharging, in imita- 

 tion of the prophet and of the firft caliphs, and in the place 

 of the fultan who reprefents them, the functions of imameth, 

 or of the priefthood, at the folemn prayer which takes place 

 on the Friday, and of reciting the khoutbe, or public pro- 

 feffion refpefting the unity and the attributes of the Su- 

 preme Being, accompanied by a prayer for the prefervation 

 and profperity of the fultan, and for the fuccefs of his 

 arms againft the infidels. They are appointed by a khaily- 

 fcherif, figned by the hand of the fultan. The imam re- 

 cites in a loud voice, in the mofque, five times a day, except 

 at the folemr. Friday's prayer, the nama%, which the perfons 

 prefent repeat in a low tone : he at the fame time performs 

 the ceremonies which accompany that prayer ; he afTifts at 

 circumcifion and interments : in a word, he difchargcs all 

 the funftions which worfhip requires. In the early ages of 

 Mahometanifm, imam fignified and deCgnated the pontiff, or 

 the fupreme chief of Idamifm : the fucceffors of the firft four 

 caliphs took only the title of imam-ul-mujlimin, pontiff of the 

 MufTulmans. The doftors and interpreters of the law were 

 afterwards decorated with it, and for fome time paft it has 

 no longer been given to any but the minifters of religion. 

 In moft villages, and fome mofques of the towns, whofe 

 revenue is too limited, the imam difcharges at the fame 

 time the funftions of fchiek, khatib, imam, muezim, and 

 cayim. The mofques of the fecond order, called mfjjirls, 

 have no need of a khatib, becaufe they have not the right 

 to celebrate the folemn prayer on a Friday. Olivicr's 

 Travels. 



ULE-TREE, Castill.4, in Botany, Mexican Elaftic 

 Gum, conftitutes a new genus of plants, of which an account 

 has been given by Don Vicente de Cervantes, in the fupplc- 

 ment to the Gazeta dc Literatura, publifhed at Mexico, 

 July 2, 1794. See Konig's Trafts relative to Botany, 229. 

 This genus is named Castilla, in memory of the late Don 

 .luan delCaftillo, a native of Jaca, in the kingdom of Aragon, 

 who at the age of twenty-feven was appointed chief bo- 

 tanift to the royal hofpital at Porto-Rico. Seventeen years 

 afterwards he was one of the naturalifts chofen to invef- 

 tigate the produftions of Mexico, where he diid July 26, 

 1793, at the age of forty-nine years. — Clafs and order, 

 Monoecia Icojandria. Nat. Ord. Scabridt, I. inn. Urticir, 

 Juff. 



Gen. Ch. Male, Cal. Perianth of one leaf, hemifphcrical, 

 covered with imbricated, ovate, acute fcaks. Cor. none. 

 Slam. Filaments numerous, thread-(hapid, inicited into the 

 infide of the calyx, the outcrmoft gradually lunger ; anthers 

 fimple, roundifh. 



Female, on the fame branch, alternate with the male, Cal. 

 as in the male, but with rather broader and thicker fcales, 

 permanent, at length fprcading. Cor. none. Pijl. Gcr- 

 mcns numerous, fifteen to twenty, ovate ; ftylestwo, rarely 

 three, to each gcrmen, fprcading, pcrmaneiil ; ftigmas fim- 

 ple, revolute. Peric. Drupas from fifteen to twenty, com- 

 bined at the bafe, obfcurely triangular, excavated at the 

 fummit. Seed. Nut ovate, of one cell, with a kernel of the 

 fame fhapc. 



U u Eff. 



