1£ TURKEY IN ASIA. 



Between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, where some superstitious 

 and visionary people have sought the situation of Paradise, there are 

 some tracts which undoubtedly deserve that name. The different 

 ruins, some of them inexpressibly magnificent, that are to be found in 

 these immense regions, cannot be appropriated with any certainty to 

 their original founders; so great is the ignorance in which they have 

 been buried for these thousand years past. It is, indeed, easy to 

 pronounce whether the style of their building be Greek, Roman, or 

 Saracen : but all other information must come from their inscriptions. 



Nothing can be more futile than the boasted antiquities shown by 

 the Greek and Armenian priests in and near Jerusalem, which is 

 well known to have been so often rased to the ground, and rebuilt 

 anew, that no scene of our Saviour's life and sufferings can be ascer- 

 tained; and yet those ecclesiastics subsist by their forgeries, and pre* 

 tending to guide travellers to every spot mentioned in the Old and 

 New Testament. They are, it is true, under severe contributions to 

 the Turks, but the trade still goes on, though much diminished in its 

 profits. The church of the Holy Sepulchre, as it is called, said to be 

 built by Helena, mother to Constantine the Great, is still standing, 

 and of tolerably good architecture; but its different divisions, and 

 the dispositions made round it, are chiefly calculated to support the 

 forgeries of its keepers. Other churches built by the same lady are 

 found in Palestine ; but the country is so altered in its appearance and 

 qualities, that it is one of the most despicable of any in Asia, and it 

 is in vain for a modern traveller to attempt to trace in it any ves- 

 tiges of the kingdom of David and Solomon. But the most fertile 

 country, abandoned to tyranny and wild Arabs, must in time become 

 a desert. Thus oppression soon thinned the delicious plains of Ita« 

 ly ; and the noted countries of Greece and Asia the Less, once the 

 glory of the world, are now nearly destitute of learning, arts, and peo- 

 ple. 



Origin and history of the Turks. ...It has been the fate of the 

 more southern and fertile parts of Asia, at different periods, to be con- 

 quered by that warlike and hardy race of men who inhabit the vast 

 country known to the ancients by the name of Scythia, and among the 

 moderns by thatoi Tartary. One tribe of these people, called Turks 

 or Turcomans, extended its conquests under various leaders, and dur- 

 ing several centuries, from the shore of the Caspian to the Straits of 

 the Dardanelles. Being long resident, in the capacity of body-guards, 

 about the courts of the Saracens, they embraced the doctrine of Ma- 

 homet, and acted for a long time as mercenaries in the armies of con- 

 tending princes. Their chief residence was in the neighbourhood of 

 Mount Caucasus, from whence they removed to Armenia Major ; and 

 after being employed as mercenaries by the sultans of Persia, they 

 seized that kingdom about the year 1037, and spread their ravages 

 all over the neighbouring countries. Bound by their religion to make 

 converts to Mahometanism, they never were without a pretence for 

 invading and ravaging the dominions of the Greek emperors, and were 

 sometimes commanded by very able generals. Upon the declension 

 of the caliphate or empire of the Saracens, they made themselves 

 masters of Palestine ; and the visiting of the holy city of Jerusalem 

 being then part of the Christian exercises, in which they had been to- 

 lerated by the Saracens, the Turks laid the European pilgrims under 

 such heavy contributions, and exercised such cruelties upon the 



