The Sultan and His People

The survey that has been taken of the Turkish empire, political and social, will furnish the component parts of this wonderful structure of human power and religious fanaticism....

How true the observation that the most helpless of all creatures is man, born of a woman, who cometh forth like the tender bud of a delicate and fading flower.

In Turkey, all hereditary rank is vested solely in the person of the sultan; titles are conferred at his sovereign will and pleasure, and they do not descend from father to son.

The whole population of Turkey may be estimated at over 35,000,000 of souls, including the principalities and other tributary states, which, if deducted, leaves 27,000,000 in Tu...

We have desires to which we are impelled by nature, and their attainment is indispensable to the continuation of life; but we have desires also which are the results of acquired...

In the East there is one source of comfort and enjoyment which is more essential than all else, and that is the use of the bath, which follows all other pleasures, when excess h...

Rousseau has wisely observed, "Il faut étudier la société par les hommes, et les hommes par la société," and as the tone of society in all countries is derived from the courts a...

Ablution.--Bathing, and various forms of ablutions, were practised long before the time of Mohammed; but he has incorporated cleanliness with his religion, until his followers s...

At the time that the Turks took Constantinople, there was a colony of Genoese Venetians established in a suburb of the city, called Galata, who were allowed to retain this quart...

The Greeks, who sent the trophies of their versatile genius, their graceful architectural adornings, and exquisite paintings to the temples at Rome, and over the western world,...

We cannot deny that habit is second nature--the axiom holds good in every form of social existence; yet there is a universal disposition to mutual criticism and condemnation, wh...

Besides the Koran, there are other sacred and traditional books called the Sonnah, the productions of Abubekir, Omer, and Osman, the successors of the Prophet. The ancient calip...

It will, therefore, be perceived that polygamy, in the case of a sultan, is a matter of policy, and not choice; for even should he content himself with one wife, the State would...

There is a prevalent impression that the Turkish ladies are always imprisoned at home; but nothing is more erroneous. For, since the destruction of the janissaries, who molested...

In Europe and America disputes often involve a process of tedious litigation. It is not so in Turkey; although the Koran and its voluminous commentaries decide every case "from...

The Janissaries were first instituted for the protection of the throne and person of the sultan; the army being then composed of the victorious Turkomans, who had become turbule...

Five hundred and sixty-nine years after Christ, Mohammed the prophet was born at Mecca, where his immediate ancestors had for many years enjoyed a sort of regal and priestly aut...

The interior arrangements of the Turkish apartments and their furniture, are very peculiar, and quite unlike those of European or American drawing rooms, being entirely adapted...

It is fortunate that the less enlightened members of the human family are unconscious of their comparative inferiority--and are ignorant of the bliss to which the more sublimate...

Turkish and Eastern proverbs have often a deep and significative meaning under a simple simile. They say, "a neighbor's chicken has always so unreal a magnitude in covetous eyes...

Turkey is a country where church and state are most eminently combined. The standard of every measure or act is the Koran; the administration of affairs, both civil and religion...

Modern civilization has put the world into fetters with its laws and by-laws, which seem the result of some secret combination, as they are generally known only to the initiated...

Mohammed, who is the oracle on all subjects, having declared, that "the ink of the learned and the blood of the martyr are equal in the sight of God," education is not so entire...

The ordinary course of events, the humdrum monotonous tinkling of life's daily and ever recurring necessities, is wearisome to the soul. There is a longing for variety; the love...

Oriental life has many distinguishing peculiarities and characteristic forms of politeness, but unlike other parts of the globe, etiquette in the East is permanent and general....

Although the Mussulmans are allowed by the Koran to have several wives, there are few who have more than one, especially at the present day; a fact not to be, however, attribute...

The sultan is obliged to attend one of the public mosques in person every Friday, which is the Mohammedan Sunday. One reason of his public appearance is to set an example of rel...

The first years of the life of every girl are spent both in the Harem and Selamluk (or men's apartment), indiscriminately. The female children being then allowed free access to...

The bazaars of Constantinople are built of stone, and lighted from the top. They seem like long streets covered with arched roofs, each street being appropriated to some particu...

Marriage is considered "honorable in all," but most especially among the Osmanlis, who enter into this condition as they arrive at the age of puberty. The independent state of b...

Although the power and authority of the sultan is unlimited, and his sway entirely arbitrary, the disposal of affairs is naturally consigned to various officers. The two princip...

Although the slave trade has been nominally abolished in Turkey, and the public mart formally closed to this traffic, yet the practice of buying and selling has not been, nor wi...

The Jews of Turkey, of whom there are about 170,000, are by no means exempt from the sorrows and curses of their race. As if conscious that there is no escape from the contempt...

The soldiers in active service are called Nizam, and those in reserve, Redif. They are raised by conscription, and formerly used to serve all their lifetime, or as long as they...

The Osmanlis, having no commercial marine except their own few coasters--the whole foreign, and great part of the internal trade, is carried on by 35,000 foreign vessels; whose...

They are most credulous and superstitious in their notions upon this subject, and ready to follow the advice of any empiric in the healing art. They seem to know two diseases pe...

A people descended from nomadic tribes, and, until very recently, severed from foreign intercourse, would naturally retain its simple and national type. Besides, the peculiar bo...

Göshüre, tithe $11,000,000 Saliane, land tax 10,000,000 Haradj, Poll tax on Christian subjects (lately abolished) 2,000,000 Geömrük, customs 4,300,000 Mirry and Ihtissab, indire...

The policy of the government has hitherto been centralization, that is, to draw the mass of the people from the frontiers to a common centre, in order the more readily to suppre...