The second builder of it was Rehoboam (Reja’ím), son of Solomon; and the third Yánkó, son of Mádiyán, the Amalekite, who reigned 4600 years after Adam was driven from Paradise, and 419 years before the birth of Iskender Rúmí (Alexander the Great), and was the first of the Batálisah (Ptolemies?) of the Greeks. There were four universal monarchs, two of whom were Moslims and two Infidels. The two first were Soleïmán (Solomon) and Iskender Zú’l karneïn (the two-horned Alexander), who is also said to have been a prophet; and the two last were Bakhtu-n-nasr, that desolation of the whole face of the earth, and Yánkó ibn Mádiyán, who lived one hundred years in the land of Adím (Edom).
SECTION III.
Concerning the Conquest of the Black Sea.
This sea, according to the opinion of the best mathematicians, is only a relic of Noah’s flood. It is eighty fathoms (kúláj) deep, and, before the deluge, was not united with the White Sea. At that time the plains of Salániteh (Slankament), Dóbreh-chín (Dobruczin), Kej-kemet (Ketskemet), Kenkús and Busteh, and the vallies of Sirm and Semendereh (Semendria), were all covered with the waters of the Black Sea, and at Dúdushkah, on the shore of the Gulf of Venice, the place where their waters were united may still be seen. Parávádí, in the páshálik of Silistirah (Silistria), a strong fortress now situated on the highest rocks, was then on the sea-shore; and the rings by which the ships were moored to the rocks are still to be seen there. The same circumstance is manifested at Menkúb, a days journey from Bághcheh seráï, in the island of Krim (Crimea). It is a castle built on a lofty rock, and yet it contains stone pillars, to which ships were anciently fastened. At that time the island of Krim (Crimea), the plains of Heïhát (Deshti Kipchák), and the whole country of the Sclavonians (Sakálibah), were covered with the waters of the Black Sea, which extended as far as the Caspian. Having accompanied the army of Islám Giráï Khán in his campaign against the Muscovites (Moskov), in the year——, I myself have passed over the plains of Haïhát; at the encampments of Kertmeh-lí, Bím, and Ashim, in those plains, where it was necessary to dig wells in order to supply the army with water, I found all kinds of marine remains, such as the shells of oysters, crabs, cockles, &c., by which it is evident that this great plain was once a part of the Black Sea. Verily God hath power over every thing!
The fourth builder of Constantinople was Alexander the Great, who is also said to have cut the strait of Sebtah (Ceuta), which unites the White Sea (Mediterranean) with the ocean. Some say the Black Sea extends from Azák (Azof), to the straits of Islámbúl (the canal of Constantinople), the sea of Rúm (Greece), from thence to the straits of Gelíbólí (Gallipoli, i.e. the Hellespont), the key of the two seas, where are the two castles built by Sultán Mohammed the Conqueror, and that all below this forms the White Sea. Having often made an excursion in a boat, when the sea was smooth and the sky clear, from the Cape of the Seven Towers (Yedí kullah búrunú), near Islámbúl, to the point of Kází Koï (called Kalámish), near Uskudár (Scutari), I have observed in the water a red line, of about a hand’s breadth, drawn from one of these points to the other. The sea to the north of the line is the Black Sea; but to the south of it, towards Kizil Adá, and the other (Princes’) islands, is called, on account of its azure (níl) hue, the White Sea; and the intermixture of the two colours forms, by the command of God, as wonders never fail, a red seam (ráddeh), which divides the two seas from each other. This line is always visible, except when strong southerly winds blow from the islands of Mermereh (Marmora), when it disappears, from the roughness of the sea. There is also a difference in the taste of the waters on each side of this line; that towards the Black Sea being less salt and bitter than that towards the White Sea: to the south of the castles (of the Dardanelles), it is still more bitter, but less so than in the ocean. No sea has more delicious fish than the Black Sea, and those caught in the Strait of Islámbúl are excellent. As that strait unites the waters of the Black and White Seas, it is called, by some writers, the confluence of two seas (mereju’l bahreïn).
The fifth builder of Constantinople was a king of Ungurús (Hungary), named Púzantín (Byzantinus), son of Yánkó Ibn Mádiyán, in whose time the city was nearly destroyed by a great earthquake, nothing having escaped except a castle built by Solomon, and a temple on the site of Ayá Sófiyyah. From Púzantín, Islámbúl was formerly called Púzenteh (Byzantium).
The sixth builder was one of the Roman emperors; the same as built the cities of Kóniyah, Níkdeh and Kaïsariyyah (Cæsarea). He rebuilt Islámbúl, which, for seventy years, had been a heap of ruins, a nest of serpents, lizards, and owls, 2288 years before its conquest by Sultán Mohammed.
The seventh builder of the city of Mákedún was, by the common consent of all the ancient historians, Vezendún, one of the grandsons of Yánkó Ibn Mádiyán, who, 5052 years after the death of Adam, being universal monarch, forced all the kings of the earth to assist him in rebuilding the walls of Mákedún, which then extended from Seraglio point (Seráï búrunú), to Silivrí (Selymbria), southwards, and northwards as far as Terkós on the Black Sea, a distance of nine hours’ journey.
Both these towns were united by seven long walls, and divided by seven ditches a hundred cubits wide. The remains of these walls, castles, and ditches, are still visible on the way from Silivrí to Terkós; and the kháns, mosques, and other public buildings in the villages on that road, as Fetehkóï, Sázlí-kóï, Arnáúd-kóï, Kuvúk-dereh, ’Azzu-d-din-lí, Kiteh-lí, Báklálí, and Túrk-esheh-lí, are all built of stones taken from these walls; the remains of some of their towers and seven ditches appearing here and there. Chatáljeh, which is now a village in that neighbourhood, was then a fortified market-town close to the fortress of Islámbúl, as its ruins shew. The line of fortifications which then surrounded the city may still be traced, beginning from Terkós on the Black Sea, and passing by the villages of Bórúz, Tarápiyah (Therapia), Firándá near Rum-ili hisár, Ortahkóï, Funduklí, to the point of Ghalatah, and from thence to the lead-magazines, St. Johns fountain (Ayá Yankó áyázmah-sí), the Ghelabah castle, the old arsenal, the castle of Petrínah, the Arsenal-garden-Point, the castle of Alínah, the village of Súdlíjeh, and the convent of Ja’fer-ábád. All these towns and castles were connected by a wall, the circuit of which was seven days’ journey.