Travels in Turkey and back to England

by Edmund Chishull

April xxiv.

We propose to spend this day at Magnesia, in order to observe what may further occur there remarkable. To this end we were favoured with the company of a janisary by one Mahmút agá, to whom this morning we made a short visit; he being the person, to whom at first we expected to have been recommended. The janisary conducted us to the two principal mosques of the city, to a religious college of dervíses, to a madhouse, and to an old seraglio, where the young princes of the Ottoman empire have formerly been educated. At the last of these there remain only the reliques of two or three rich tiváns, and a considerable number of stately old cypress trees, to witness the former grandeur of the place. At the madhouse we could observe nothing besides the bare walls of that hospital, and a brass mortar lying in the yard, which seemed to be remarkable for an old Latin inscription, which it bore, signifying that it was made at Pisa. The religious college is a fair stone building, consisting of one quadrangle, and that encompassed with a regular cloister, which is supported with pillars of the modern Greek module. The two mosques, which we mentioned, are distinguished from the rest, in that they are of royal foundation, an honour which is signified by the two minarées belonging to them; whereas the other eighteen, with which this city is furnished, have but one a piece. Before each of these mosques there is a square and regular area, containing a beautiful fountain in the middle, and enclosed on three sides with cells of religious Turks. The front of the mosque makes the fourth side of the square, and is itself likewise adorned with a spacious portico supported with stately pillars, of which some only are topt with modern capitals. But as the capitals of the rest are of the old Corinthian order, so all the shafts appear plainly to be ancient; some consisting of natural and others of cast artificial marble, but both the one and the other bound near the pedestal with rings of massy brass.

Before we could be admitted into the inside, we were obliged to comply with the zeal of the Turks, who always leave their shoes at the entrance of their mosques. Here we found them both much resembling one another, excepting that one was richer than the other; and whereas the roof of the other consisted of five cupolas, the roof of this was regularly contracted into one. We had now the liberty to view several copies of their Alcoran, and other books of Mahometan prayers, all curiously written and adorned with golden figures. The windows are furnished with excellent painted glass, full of flower work and religious inscriptions; and from the roof hangs a multitude of lamps, together with bright balls contrived to reflect the light, all of them well ranged in a beautiful and artificial manner.

In each of the royal mosques we further observed a splendid kiblé, which is a part separate from the body of the mosque, and answering to the altar of our Christian churches; it is adorned with a rich floor and gilded roof, together with carving and mosaic work on each side, but more particularly in the front, which is contrived to face Mecca. Immediately to the right hand of the kiblé stands a lofty pulpit, being fourteen steps high, and consisting of a portal, rails, and canopy, all of wrought marble. One thing was remarkable as well in these mosques, as in that which we afterwards saw at Ephesus, though we know not whether it has any mystical reference to the Turkish superstition; it is a nich in the front of the kiblé, on each side of which stands a fine slender pillar, hewn out of one entire stone, made without capital or pedestal, but so fixed within the work both above and below, that it remains moveable, and is turned about by the hand at pleasure.

This sight of Magnesia was our employment before diner, but in the afternoon we all attempted to ascend the castle hill on foot; which we quickly found to be a more difficult and painful task, than we at first imagined. The way was inexpressibly steep and craggy, and cost us an hour’s labour, though we made all possible speed; nor after our return could we blame the discretion of one of our companions, who thought fit to retire about the midway. However having at length conquered the ascent, our toil was well rewarded with the surprizing prospect of the city, and adjacent plain; in the latter of which we could distinguish the whole course of the Hermus for many miles together, as also the places where the Amnis Phrygius, or Hyllus, joins it[13].

The fabric of the whole castle is very strong, and the advantage of a hill, which is on all sides a mile high, must have rendered it impregnable, in an age which knew not the use of gunpowder. It was formerly fortified with a considerable number of great guns, which are now removed to the new castle, which defends the bay of Smyrna. Two only remain on a bastion, that fronts the city; on both which we were sorry to see the eagles of the Roman empire. No other apartment of the castle is now kept locked, except a dungeon, in which there were twelve prisoners, lately sent thither by Osmánogli. A sight of these miserable wretches we desired of the agá, nor was he so scrupulous as to deny it us. The same agá likewise shewed us within the precincts of the castle a poor Christian church, dedicated to the memory of St. John; where the Greeks meet upon the day of his feast, and are at the constant charge of two lamps, which burn there throughout the year. We had read and heard of a collection of Roman arms, reserved somewhere in this castle; tho being upon the place, nothing of this nature occurred to us. But Solymán effendi, a most courteous and obliging person, whom we visited this evening, as being the next neighbour, as well as brother of our landlord, assured us, that having many years since had the curiosity to ascend the castle hill, he then saw under ground the collection which we spake of, consisting of headpieces, breastplates, shields, and the like.

The mountainous parts about Magnesia were antiently famous for the production of the loadstone[14]; tho indeed it is disparaged by Pliny[15], and accounted less attractive, than that of other places. However this probably was the city, from whence, as Lucretius says, that stone took the name of magnet[16]; as from the whole country of Lydia the touchstone likewise was called lapis Lydius[17]. This hint gave us the curiosity to carry a sea compass up the castle hill, where we had the satisfaction to see it point to different quarters, as we then placed it upon different stones, and quickly after intirely to lose its whole virtue; two effects which are natural to the magnetic needle, when injured by the nearness of other bodies impregnated with the same quality.

Late in the evening we were now preparing for repose, and endeavouring to forget the fatigue of the castle hill; when Solymán effendi, having laid aside the badges of his character, and put on a more familiar temper, returned our visit. We doubted not from the change of his habit, and the unseasonableness of the hour, but he came to break a Mahometan commandment, and steal his kief (as the Turks pleasantly express it) in the juice of the forbidden grape[18]. This was a tedious and ungrateful task, with which nevertheless, by reason of his own and his brother’s great civility, some of our company were forced to comply. Nor had the wine he freely drank its desired effect, till towards two a clock in the morning.