They have a mighty Honour and Esteem for Physicians, for though they are of Opinion, that they cannot with all their Art prolong Life, the Period and Term of it being Fatal, and absolutely determin'd by God, yet they often consult them upon any violent Sickness or Pain, in order to make the time allotted them in this World more pleasant and easie. It is extraordinary rare, that a natural Turk makes Physick his Profession and Study. They who practice it among them, when I was in Turky, were for the most part Greeks and Jews, who know nothing of Chymical Medicines, but follow the usual Methods, which they learnt in Italy and Spain, the former having studied in Padua, and the latter in Salamanca, where they pass for good Catholicks. And I remember I met with a certain Jew Physician, who had been a Capuchine in Portugal. During the tedious Siege of Candia, the Vizir, what with the melancholy, and what with the ill Air of the Camp, finding himself much indispos'd, sent for a Christian Physician Signior Massalins, a subject of the Republick of Venice, but Married to a Greek Woman, by whom he had several Children, who was our Neighbour at Pera, an experienc'd able Man, to come speedily to him, and made him a Present of about a thousand Dollars, in order to fit himself for the Voyage and bear the expence of it. By this worthy Gentleman's Care, he recovered his Health, and would not permit him to depart, till after the surrendry of that City, which might be about seven Months after his Arrival there, treating him in the mean while with all imaginable Respect. During our short stay at Bursia, one of our Janizaries accidentally discoursing with a Turk about us, whom they knew to be Franks, told him that there was a Physician in the Company, who had been lately at the Grand Signior's Court at Saloniki with the English Ambassador, and was now upon his return from Constantinople to Smyrna, where he lived. This presently took vent, and the Turks thought that they had got a Man among them, that could Cure all Diseases Infallibly; for several immediately came to find us out in behalf of themselves or their Sick Friends, and one of the most considerable Men upon the Place, desir'd the Doctor to go to his House to visit one of his Women Sick in Bed, who being permitted to feel her naked Pulse (for usually they throw a piece of fine Silk or Curl over their Womens Wrists at such times) soon discovered by that and other Symptoms and Indications of her Distemper, that opening a Vein would presently give her Ease and recover her: which he did accordingly; for which he received an embroidered Handkerchief instead of a Fee, and gained the Reputation of having done a mighty Cure.
They have little of Ingenious or Solid Learning among them; their chief Study, next to the Alcoran, being metaphysical Niceties about the Attributes of God, or else the Maintenance of other odd speculative Notions and Tenets, derived down to them from some of their famed Masters and Holy Men, whom they pretend to follow. Their Knowledge of the motion of the Heavens, for which the Arabians and the other Eastern Nations have been so deservedly famous, as their Astronomical Tables of the Longitude and Latitude of the fixed Stars, and of the appulse of the Moon to them, fully evince, is now very mean, and is chiefly studied for the use of Judiciary Astrology. The great Instrument they make use of is an Astrolabe, with which they make very imperfect Observations, having no such thing as a Quadrant or Sextant, much less a Telescope, or any mechanical Engine, to direct and assist them in their Calculation. Their Skill in Geography is as inconsiderable; I remember I heard the Captain Bassa, whom they stile Admiral of the Black and White Seas, meaning the Euxine and the Mediterranean, ask this silly Question; whether England were out of the Streights? and at another time the Caymican or Governour of Constantinople, hearing that England was an Island, desired to know, how many Miles it was about, in order, we supposed, to make an estimate of our King's Greatness and Strength by the extent and compass of it.
One of the great Astrologers of Constantinople, having heard that I had a pair of Globes in my Chamber, made me a Visit on purpose to see their contrivance, being introduced by a worthy Gentleman of our own Nation. After the first Ceremonies were over, I took my Terrestrial Globe, and rectified it to the position of the Place, and pointed to the several Circles both without and upon it, and told him in short the several uses of them: Then shewed him how Constantinople bared from Candia at that time Besieged, Cair, Aleppo, Mecca, and other chief Places of the Empire, with the other Parts of the World: At which he was mightily surprized to see the whole Earth and Sea represented in that Figure and in so narrow a compass, and pleased himself with turning the Globe round several times together. Afterwards I set before him the Celestial Globe, and rectified that, and shewed him how all the noted Constellations were exactly described, and how they moved regularly upon their Poles, as in the Heavens; some rising, and others setting, some always above the Horison, and others always under, in an oblique Sphere, and particularly what Stars would rise that Night with us at such an Hour; the Man seemed to be ravished with the Curiosity of it, turning this Globe also several times together with his Finger, and taking a mighty Pleasure in viewing the motion of it: and yet this silly Animal past for a Conjurer among the Turks, and was look'd upon as one that could foretel the events of Battels, the fates of Empires, and the end of the World.
They have no Genius for Sea-Voyages, and consequently are very Raw and Unexperienc'd in the Art of Navigation, scarce venturing to Sail out of Sight of Land. I speak of the natural Turks, who Trade either into the Black Sea, or some part of the Morea, or between Constantinople and Alexandria; and not of the Pyrats of Barbary, who are for the most part Renegado's, and learn'd their Skill in Christendom, which they exercise so much to the Terror and Damage of it. A Turkish Compass consists but of eight Points, the four Cardinal and four Collateral; they being at a mighty Loss how to Sail by a side Wind, when by hauling their Sails sharp, they might lie their Course, and much more, when they are in the Winds Eye, not knowing how to make Tacks and Bords, but choose rather to make hast into some Neighbouring Port, 'till the Wind blows fair. An English and Turkish Vessel both bound for the Bay of Saloniki, at the time of the Grand Signior's being there, past together out of the Hellespont; but foul Weather happening, the Turks got into Lemnos; while our Men kept at Sea and pursued their Voyage, and after three Weeks stay, returned back to us, observing in their way, that the Turks remained in the same place where they left them, for want of a Fore-Wind to put to Sea in.
They trouble not themselves with reading the Histories of other Nations or of antient times, much less with the Study of Chronology, without which, History is very lame and imperfect; which is the cause of those ridiculous and childish Mistakes, which pass current and uncontradicted among them. For instance, they make Job one of Solomon's Judges and (Iscander) Alexander the great Captain General of his Army. They number Philip of Macedon among the Ancestors of our Blessed Saviour, and believe that Sampson, Jonas, and St. George were his Contemporaries. In this they are more excusable then their false Prophet Mahomet, who in his Alcoran has perverted several Historical Notices in the Writings of the Old Testament, and is guilty of vile and absurd Pseudo-chronismes. To remedy this defect, of which he was very conscious, and the better to understand the States of Christendom, and the particular Kingdoms and Republicks of it, the late Great and Wise Vizir, Achmet, made his Interpreter Panagiotti, a Learned Greek, at leisure Hours, even at the Siege of Candia, as well as at other times, read several ancient Histories to him, and render them Ex-tempore into the Turkish Language, and particularly Blaeus Atlas, with which he was mightily pleased, and made great use of, and truly gained the Reputation of a solid and judicious States-man, as well as Souldier among the Christian Ministers, who in the ordinary course of their Negotiations apply'd themselves to him.
Tho' their Year be according to the course of the Moon, and so the Turkish Months run round the civil Year in a Circle of thirty three Years and a few odd Days, yet they celebrate the Neuruz, which signifies in the Persian Tongue the New Year, the twenty first Day of March (on which Day the vernal Equinox was fixed by the Greeks and other Oriental Christians, in the time of the Emperor Constantine, who made no Provision for the προήγεσις ἰσημερινὴ, or Precession, which in process of Time the inequality between the Civil and Astronomical Year must necessarily produce) at which time the Cadyes and other annual Magistrates, and Farmers of the Customs take Place, and reckon to that Day twelve Month again.
In their civil Deportment and Behaviour one towards another, the left Hand is the more Worthy and Honourable Place, except among their Ecclesiasticks; and the Reason they alledge is, because they Write from the right Hand, and the Sword is worn on the left Side, and so is more at his disposal, who walks on that Hand. The chief Vizir accordingly in the Divan sits at the left Hand of the Mufty, each maintaining their Right of Precedence according to this way of decision.
In their Moschs they sit without any distinction of degrees.