CLAR&’s TRAVELS; 
rably delineated in the figures of the Scythian captives, that, 
they are evident upon the slightest inspection.* 
It is somewhat singular, that, amongst all the literary tra¬ 
vellers who have described the curiosities of Constantinople, no 
one has hitherto noticed the market for manuscripts; yet it 
"would be difficult to select an object more worthy of examina¬ 
tion. The bazar of the booksellers does not contain all the 
works enumerated by UTIerbelot; but there is hardly any 
oriental author, whose writings, if demanded, may not be pro¬ 
cured; although every volume offered for sale is manuscript 
The number of shops employed in this way, in that market and 
elsewdiere, amounts to a hundred: each of these contain, upon 
an average, five hundred volumes; so that no less a number 
than fifty thousand manuscripts, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, 
are daily exposed for sale. One of my first endeavours was 
to procure a general catalogue of the writings most in request 
throughout the empire; that is to say, of those works which 
are constantly on sale in the cities of Constantinople, Aleppo, 
and Cairo, and also of their prices. This I procured through 
the medium of a dervish.f The causes of disappointment,, 
which has so often attended the search after manuscripts by 
literary persons sent out from the academies of Europe, 
may be easily explained. These men have their residence in 
Pera, whence it is necessary to go by w r ater to Constantino¬ 
ple. Tiie day is generally far spent before they reach the 
place of their destination; and w hen arrived, they make their 
appearance followed by a janissary. The venders of manu¬ 
scripts, w r ho are often emirs, and sometimes dervishes, behold¬ 
ing an injidel thus accompanied, gratifying what they deem 
an impertinent, and even sacrilegious curiosity, among vo¬ 
lumes of their religion and law 7 , take offence, and refuse not 
only to sell, but to exhibit any part of their collection. The 
best method is to employ a dervish, marking in the catalogue 
such books as he may be required to purchase ; or to go alone, 
unless an interpreter is necessary. I found no difficulty in 
obtaining any work that I couid afford to buy. The manu¬ 
script of “ The Arabian Nights” or, as it is called, Alf Lila ' 
o Lila , is not easily procured, and for this reason: it is a com¬ 
pilation, made according to the taste and opportunity of the 
# Imperiitm Orientate , tom. ii. p. 521. The reader, referring to the -work, is re¬ 
quested to attend particularly to the portraits of the Scythian monarch and of one of,' 
]his nobles, in the third plate. 
-f This catalogue may be considered as offering a tolerable view of the general state 
of oriental literature:, such, for example, as might be obtained of the literature of 
by the catalogues of any of the principal booksellers of Jsondon and Edinburgh, 
