SECTION XIII.
Description of the Old Seráï.
Sultán Mohammed the Conqueror also determined to place his honourable harem in Islámból. In an airy and elevated position, on the side of the city which overlooks the canal, there was an old convent, built by King Púzantín, and placed in the midst of a delightful grove, full of all sorts of beasts and birds. This convent, in the time of Púzantín and Kostantín, had been occupied by twelve thousand monks and nuns. The occasion of its being built was, that Simon, one of the apostles of Jesus, having engaged in devotion, and in maintaining a friendly intercourse with all sorts of wild animals, dug a pit in the ground in order to supply them with water, on which a spring of truly living water burst forth. Simon afterwards built a small oratory there, which, in process of time, was replaced by the convent which Mohammed destroyed, when he built upon its site the old palace (Eskí Seráï) begun in the year 858 (A.D. 1454), and finished in the year 862 (A.D. 1458). The wall has neither towers, battlements, nor ditch; but is very strong, being cased with azure-coloured lead. Its circumference was then twelve thousand arshíns (25,000 feet). It is a solid square building, one side of which stretched from the brazier’s (kazánjílar) quarter, near the mosque of Sultán Báyazíd, down to the Miskí-sábún (Musk-soap) gate, from whence another extended to the palace of Dellák Mustafá Páshá. Thence a third rested against the wall and cistern of the little bázár. The site of the palaces of the Aghá of the janissaries, and of Siyávush Páshá, now occupies that of the Old Seráï. From thence the fourth side, passing above the quarter of Tahta-l kal’ah, came again to the Brazier’s bázár. Within this palace there were many courts, cabinets, cisterns, and fountains; a kitchen like that of Kei-kávus, a private buttery, chambers for three thousand halbardiers (teberdár), servants without ringlets, one apartment (ódá) for the white, and one for the black Aghá (of the eunuchs), who were both subordinate to the (Kizlar Aghá) Aghá of the Porte (Dáru-s-sa’ádeh, i.e. the house of felicity). Having placed in this all his favourites (khássekí), together with the French Princess, he came twice every week from the new palace to the old, and on those nights did justice there.
Eulogium on the living water of the old palace (Eskí Seráï).
Abú-l fat-h Mohammed, being a wise and illustrious Emperor, assembled all his learned men in order to enquire which was the best water in Islámból, and they all unanimously pointed out to him the spring of Shim’ún (Simon), within the Eskí Seráï, as the lightest, most temperate, and copious of all; which was proved by dipping a miskál of cotton in a certain quantity of each different kind of water, then weighing each parcel, and after drying it in the sun, weighing it a second time. The Sultán, therefore, resolved to drink of no other water than this, and to this time it is the favourite source from which all his successors drink. Three men come every day from the Kilárjí-báshí, and three from the Sakká-báshí of the Seráï, and fill six silver flaggons, each containing twenty ounces, with this limpid water, seal the mouths of them in presence of the inspector of water with seals of red wax, and bring them to the Emperor. At present this fountain is in front of the Inspector’s-gate (Názir kapú-sí) on the eastern side of the Eskí Seráï, where Sultán Mohammed the Conqueror caused the water to run outside of the palace, and erected the building over it; it is now the most celebrated water in the town, and is known by the name of the fountain of Shim’ún. In the year——, Sultán Suleïmán having enlarged this old palace to the extent of three miles in circumference, built three gates. The Díván kapú-sí towards the east, Sultán Báyazíd kapú-sí to the south, and the Suleïmániyyeh kapú-sí towards the west. On the outside of this gate Sultán Suleïmán built the mosque bearing his name from the booty of the conquest of Belgrade, Malta, and Rhodes; and near it colleges for science, and teaching the traditions and art of reciting the Korán, a school for children, an alms-house, a hospital, a cáravánseráï, a bath, and market for boot-makers, button-makers, and goldsmiths; a palace for the residence of the late Siyávush Páshá, another for the residence of the Aghá of the janissaries, a third for Lálá Mustafà Páshá, a fourth for Pír Mohammed Páshá Karamání, a fifth for Mustafà Páshá, builder of the mosque at Geïbiz, a sixth for his daughter Esmahán Sultán, and a thousand cells, with pensions annexed, for the servants of the mosque. The four sides, however, of the old Seráï, were bordered by the public road, and, to this time, are not contiguous to any house. The abovementioned palaces are all built on the site of the old Seráï, which was erected by Sultán Mohammed Khán, who afterwards constructed barracks for 160 regiments (Bulúks and Jemá’ats) of janissaries, and 160 chambers (ódás) for the Segbáns (Seïmens), a mosque for himself, chambers for the armorers (jebeh-jís), powder magazines at Peïk-khánah, Kalender-khánah, Ters-khánah, Top-khánah, Kághid-khánah, and many other similar public buildings within and without Islámból; the sums thus expended, having been drawn from the treasures amassed in his conquests.