121 
CONSTAN 
officers are obliged to maintain their private harems; for 
it is the principle of Turkifh law, that every man (hall 
provide for a certain number of women, proportioned to 
his wealth and rank in life, when a numerous harem be¬ 
comes as much an article of oilentation as a fplendid equi¬ 
page with us. 
The public proceffions of the fultan are conduced with 
great fplendour, on horfes gorgeoully caparifoned, and a 
very numerous train of guards and attendants. The citi¬ 
zens of Conftantmople are pleafed with beholding the 
countenance of their foverejgn, and fince the reign of 
Morad IV. have infilled on his going publicly every Fri¬ 
day to fome one or other of the mofques: he is always- 
mounted on an Arabian horfe, and carries a fmall um¬ 
brella in his hand, the ribs of which are ftudded with 
diamonds, blazing in the fun. . Sultan Mahmood had 
been long an invalid, and omitted this duty, when l'uch 
difcontents arofe that he was forced to venture out, and 
died on his return under the fecond gate of the feraglio. 
But the greateft magnificence is feen on the folemn days 
of the rammezan, and beyram, every year, and more 
efpecially on the extraordinary occafions of a donalmah, 
or public rejoicing on the birth of a prince, and the dis¬ 
playing the fanjak Iherife, or confecrated banner of the 
prophet, when the janilfaries march to the field on a de¬ 
claration of war. Such exhibitions of the grandeur of 
this unwieldy monarchy will not convey to the mind any 
proportionate ideas of its real power, when we reflect that 
a people whofe government is fyltematically corrupt and 
proportionably feeble, whofe relources are neither under- 
flood nor applied, without commerce and without manu¬ 
factures for foreign confumption, cannot be an objeCt 
either of fear or of envy to other nations. 
The fultans who have founded mofques have not in¬ 
dulged only their attachment to their religion, or their 
tafte for magnificence, in the ereftion of fo many fplendid 
buildings, but have contributed to the public good, by 
invariably attaching to them academies, with profeffors, 
hofpitals, and khans. Nofyltem can be more benevolent 
or politic than that which embraces fo many obje&s, and 
fupphes fo many wants. To feveral of the royal mofques 
. libraries are added. Mohammed II. favoured literature, 
and in the year after his conquell of Conllantinople an¬ 
nexed an academy to St. Sophia, penfioned profeffors, 
and eftablifhed a fund for the maintenance of ftudents. 
In 1784 they amounted to a hundred and fifty. The 
academy adjoining his own mofque contains fixteen claffes, 
with thirty ftudents in each, who have a liberal mainte¬ 
nance. Yet, from the ltrange eccentricity of the peo¬ 
ple, literature and arts make no progrefs. Thirteen pub¬ 
lic libraries are open in Conflantinople eftablifhed by ful¬ 
tans or vifiers, none of which contain more than two 
thoufand volumes, all in manufeript. Their value is 
much enhanced by the high price of tranferiptio'n ; from 
fifteen to twenty pounds are paid for a folio well written, 
but without ornament or illuminations. The library of 
St. Sophia was founded by Solyman the Magnificent in 
thefixteenth century, and furnifhed in its prelent flate by 
fultan Mahmood in 1754. The number of manuferipts 
in 1527, amongfl which is a Koran written by Ofman, 
the third khaiit, and commentaries upon it, in one hun¬ 
dred and thirty-three volumes. That of fultan Moham¬ 
med is open every day, and has three keepers. One of 
the 1525 manuferipts it contains is the Koran complete 
in the Cufic character, detached leaves of which are 
elleemed fo great a curiofity in the European collections. 
In all their libraries the fame arrangement of the books 
is made; they are placed flat in preffes, and lettered on 
the leaves at one end. It is not a little Angular, that the 
Turks, after all this paffion for a large fhow of books, and 
the great expenditure on their public libraries, (hould 
frill remain, nationally fpeaking, an illiterate people ; yet 
it is no lefs true that a tafle for literature, however ill 
diredled by prejudice, is cultivated by many individuals. 
The city ot Conllantinople appears to have derived all 
YOI., V. No, 259. 
T I N O P L E. 
its fplendour from public edifices; and it was from the 
number of its churches, theatres, palaces, baths, columns, 
and llatues, that it could offer any pretenfion to the. appel¬ 
lation of New Rome, which was given it by the Roman 
emperors on their removal here. The great founder left 
the ftreets to the arrangement of chance, and it is proba¬ 
ble, that they were Icarcely more regular than at prefent. 
With the molt favourable fituation that can be ima¬ 
gined, if the accommodations and embellifnments of Eu¬ 
ropean capitals were adopted, Conllantinople, under its 
Ottoman mailers, has fewer conveniences than the word 
of them. Sandys fays of Conllantinople in general, “I 
think there is not in the world any objefl that promifeth 
fo much afar ofrj and entered, that fo decc-iveth the ex¬ 
pectation.” There-is an officer of police, whole foie bu- 
finefs it is to fee that the height of no private houfe in 
Conllantinople exceeds twenty-fix feet. 
All it can claim is a fort or .gloomy magnificence in the 
vicinity of the great mofques, or as approached through 
the widely extended Cemeteries. Upon the feven hills, 
its ancient boaft, are cluftered an infinity of narrow lanes, 
ill paved and filthy, as the only fcavengers are packs of 
unowned dogs of the wolf breed (for none are domelti- 
cated), and vultures, which fail in the air all day, and* at 
night perform this ufeful office. Among!! fitch numbers 
of dogs, many of which perilh from hunger, it is truly 
Angular, that canine madnefs is fcarcely known ; but they 
are fubjedl to the plague, when it rages in the city. We 
have no document to ascertain, that the feven hills of 
Conllantinople were diftinguifhed, as thofe at Rome, by 
particular names. The'ditlrifls or regions were fourteen, 
in which were included the hills, and that of the feraglio- 
point is called the firll. For this opinion, we have the 
authority of Gyllius, who follows that divifion. In froint 
of fituation, each of thefe fucceeding the other in a regu¬ 
lar increafe of elevation. Hill diilinftly obfervable from 
the harbour, had infinite advantage over thofe at Rome, 
even when free from the heaps of rubbifli which have al- 
moft levelled fome of them. Each of thofe at Conllanti¬ 
nople is crowned with innumerable domes of mofques or 
baths, and completely covered with houfes, whilfl the 
Aventine, the Caelian, and the Efquiline hills, at Rome, 
are almoll without habitations. 
Niebuhr, in his account of Conllantinople, fays it is 
almoll dellitute of means of defence. A double wall, 
and a ditch nearly filled up, are all its fortifications. 
The Turks trull for the fecurity of the city to fourcailles, 
built upon the two channels which terminate in the fea 
of Marmora, and communicating, one of them with the 
Archipelago, and the other with the Black Sea. Thofe 
cattles, known by the name of the Dardanelles, are but 
of little moment. But the channels are fo narrow and 
crooked, that a fleet which were to attempt to fail up 
either, even with the molt favourable wind, could hardly 
efcape being funk by the diicharge of the batteries'. The 
belt mode of attacking Conllantinople by fea, would be 
to block up the mouth of the channels, and thus deprive 
the city of the fupplies of provifions which it receives 
from the Archipelago. The city of Galata, furrounded. 
with a llrong wall, and riling upon a deep height over 
againit Conllantinople, is extremely populous. All the' 
European traders, and many of the ealtern Christians 
live there. Pera is a fuburb to Galata. In it refide the 
ambaliadors of Inch Clinician powers as fend public mi- 
nil'ters to the Porte. The deputies which come by turns 
from Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Ragufa, lodge in Con 
flantinople. But the Turks'confider not thele deputies 
as ambaliadors; nor yet th iiapu kiajas, who manage the. 
affairs of the princes of Wallachia and Moldavia. 
The greater part of the night in many European capi- 
tals is little diferiminated from the broad day in the buttle 
of crowded ftreets, but the laft muezzin has Icarcely called 
the hour of evening prayer before each habitually fober 
muflulman retires from public notice, and the rclortj ©f 
thoufands [during a long day, from- fun-rife to fun-let. 
