EUROPEAN TURKEY. 



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16. State of the Jlrts, Science, and Literature. The Turks have no taste for the ornamen- 

 tal arts, and have attained to no excellence in the useful ones ; their manufacture of swords is 

 the only one in which they have equaled the other nations of Europe. The religious creed 

 proscribes the imitative arts ; and the Turks must, moreover, lack all taste for them, or it would 

 have been excited by the remains of antiquity in Greece, Constantinople, and Asia Minor. 

 But every Turk is an Attila. The arts, then, may be said to be unknown in Turkey ; or their 

 highest efforts are to ornament a pipe, or the trappings of a horse, in which, if in anything, a 

 Turk is sumptuous. The Turks have done nothing for science ; though vaccination came to 

 the rest of Europe from Turkey. But it was accident, to which it owed its origin, and not to 

 science. There are about 30,000 volumes of Turkish books, which are chiefly commentaries 

 on the Koran, with some poetry and tales. 



The physicians in Turkey rely as much upon charms as upon medicines. When neither 

 charms nor medicines avail, the friends collect round the dying man, assure him of the blissful 

 reward that awaits him as a behever, and intimate to him, that it is proper to enter paradise with 

 a cheerful countenance. A Erank physician, however, has the greatest credit with the Turks, 

 and there are many of them settled in the cities. They visit even the harems, forbidden to all 

 others, though the pulse is often submitted to them covered with gauze. Dr. Madden, who 

 has given an excellent account of the Turks, had, as a physician, frequent opportunities to see 

 them in their domestic circle. Before he could expect to be much employed, however, he 

 followed the custom of the country, in hiring an attendant, a sort of mountebank, to go with 

 him to the coffee-houses, eulogize his skill, and recount his cures, in no measured language. In 

 fact, the more surprising and incredible the cure related, the more readily was it believed. 

 There is no other way than this for a Frank physician to be called to practice in Constantino- 

 ple. The pulse only is offered to the physician ; and from this alone, the Turks expect that 

 he will know the whole nature of the disease ; their backwardness in giving any other informa- 

 tion, often endangers their lives. 



17. Religion. The religion is chiefly the Mahometan, the Christian, and the Jewish. The 

 Christian is divided into the Armenian, the Cathohc, and the Greek churches. Toleration, 

 however, is no part of the Mahometan rehgion, which prevails not only in Turkey in Europe, 

 but in a vast portion of Asia and Africa. It is so much blended with various points of Chris- 

 tianity and Judaism, that it has sometimes been called a Christian heresy. The founder, Ma- 

 homet, whom his followers call the Prophet, was born at Mecca, A. D. 569, and it is held by 

 his believers, that he was foretold by Christ, as the paraclyte., or Renowned ; and that the word 

 paraclete, or Comforter, is a perversion of the text. In his youth, he was employed as a 

 traveling merchant and as a soldier. His fortunes and influence were established by a marriage 

 with Cadijah, a rich widow. By her he had eight children, one of whom only survived him, 

 his daughter Fatimah, from whom the Emirs claim a descent. During the hfe of Cadijah, he 

 had no other wife. It was not until the age of 40, that Mahomet pretended to be commissioned 

 to reveal a new religion. At first, he had the fate of better prophets, the incredulity of his 

 countrymen ; and his very wife treated him for a time as a dreamer. By degrees, however, a 

 few influential men became his followers, and it was soon after extensiveiy believed, that the 

 Angel Gabriel was the messenger who communicated the detached parts of the Koran ; for 

 this pretended oracle was produced at different times, and to suit various occasions. Mf hornet 

 had thus a ready way to silence all cavilers, and even to rebuke the love of finery in his wives. 

 A new revelation, touching the individual case, was always at hand, and the mandate of to-day 

 might be modified or repealed by that of to-morrow. 



After the death of Cadijah, the wives of Mahomet became numerous and somewhat trouble- 

 some to guide. They were from 15 to 21 in number, for so far the various authorities agree ; 

 the best beloved of these, Ayesha, was suspected of infidelity, but acquitted by a ready chapter 

 of the Koran. The prophet finding his affections turned towards the wife of Zeid, one of his 

 best servants and earliest converts, found an immediate resource in another chapter, and she 

 became his wife. Another of his wives was a Jewess, who complained that her lineage was 

 contemned by her companions, and to her he said, " Canst thou not boast Aaron is my father, 

 Moses is my uncle, and Mahomet is my husband ! " He usurped a posthumous authority, and, 

 with a spirit of mean jealousy, interdicted his wives from marrying after his death. He or- 

 damed in the Koran, that visiters should not look upon his wives ; but rather speak to them be- 

 hind a curtain ; and he affirmed, "that it would be a grievous thing in the sight of God," for 

 any one to " marry his wives after him forever." 



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