NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS
IN
EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA,
IN
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY,

BY

EVLIYÁ EFENDÍ.

TRANSLATED FROM THE TURKISH
BY
THE RITTER JOSEPH VON HAMMER,
F.M R.A.S, &c. &c. &c.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND
OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND;
SOLD BY
PARBURY, ALLEN, & Co., LEADENHALL STREET.

M.DCCC.XXXIV.

LONDON:
Printed by J. L. Cox and Son, 75, Great Queen Street,
Lincoln’s-Inn Fields.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The narrative of an Asiatic traveller, enthusiastically fond of seeing foreign countries, and unwearied in his investigation of their history, condition, and institutions, is in itself so great a singularity, and so deserving of attention, that no apology seems requisite for thus presenting Evliyá Efendí in an English dress: and the name of the Ritter von Hammer, by whom this work was abridged and translated, is a sufficient voucher for its intrinsic merit and the accuracy of the version.

It is requisite to inform the reader, that throughout the work the Asiatic words and proper names are spelt according to the system of orthography adopted by Sir William Jones and Sir Charles Wilkins, which gives to the consonants the sound they have in our own, but to the vowels that which they have in the Italian and German languages; and by assigning to each Arabic character its appropriate Roman letter, enables the Oriental student to transfer the word at once from one mode of writing to the other.

London, 20th Jan. 1834.

[BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.]

Evliyá, the son of Dervísh Mohammed, chief of the goldsmiths of Constantinople, was born in the reign of Sultán Ahmed I., on the 10th of Moharrem 1020 (A.D. 1611). He records the building of the mosque of Sultán Ahmed, which was begun when he was six years old, and the gate of which was executed under the superintendance of his father, who in his youth had been standard-bearer to Sultán Suleïmán. His grandfather was standard-bearer at the conquest of Constantinople, by Sultán Mohammed, on which occasion the house within the Un-kapán (flour-market), on the ground attached to the mosque of Sághirjílar, was the portion of spoil allotted to him. On this spot he erected one hundred shops, the revenues of which he devoted to the mosque. The administration of the mosque, therefore, remained in the hands of the family. He mentions more than once, as one of his ancestors, the great Sheikh Ahmed Yesov, called the Turk of Turks, a resident of Khorásán, and who sent his disciple, the celebrated Hájí Bektásh,[1] to Sultán Orkhán. Evliyá’s mother was an Abáza, and when a girl, had been sent along with her brother to Sultán Ahmed, who kept the boy as a page, and presented the girl to Mohammed Dervísh, the chief of the goldsmiths. The brother had, or received, the Sultán’s name, with the sirname Melek (angel), and is mentioned in history as the Grand Vezír Melek Ahmed Pashá, in whose suite Evliyá performed a great part of his travels.

Evliyá attended the college of Hámid Efendí, in the quarter of the town called Fíl Yúkúshí, where for seven years he heard the lectures of Akhfash Efendí. His tutor in reading the Korán was Evliyá Mohammed, a learned man, after whom it appears our traveller was named. Distinguished by his acquirements, his melodious voice, and, as it seems, by a fine person, he performed the duty of Móazzin at Ayá Sófíya on the Lailat al Kadr of 1045 (1635), on which occasion, as he himself relates, he attracted the particular attention of Sultán Murád IV. He was then twenty-five years old; and under the care of his master had made such progress in the art of reading the Korán, that he could read the whole in seven hours, and was perfectly versed in the seven modes of reading. His uncle Melek Ahmed was at this time sword-bearer to the Sultán, and it seems that Evliyá was in some degree indebted to his interest for the favour of being immediately admitted as a page of the Kílár-oda. The Sultán was not less pleased with his melodious voice and his witty remarks, which evinced much information, than with his handsome person, in consequence of which he was initiated into all the profligacies of the royal pages, the relation of which, in more than one place, leaves a stain upon his writings. He, however, continued his studies in caligraphy, music, grammar, and the Korán, the latter still under the direction of Evliyá Mohammed, who was then imperial chaplain (Khúnkár Imámí).[2]

His stay in the imperial palace was, however, very short, as he was removed from it previously to the Persian expedition, undertaken the same year (1045) against Eriván, when he was enrolled among the Sipáhís, with a stipend of forty aspres per diem. Whatever importance Evliyá may have attached to the honour of having been for a short time an inmate of the seraglio, it seems to have produced no change in his life, which was that of a traveller all his days. To this vocation, he conceived he had a special call in a dream on the anniversary of his twenty-first birth-day (the 10th of Moharrem). He fancied himself in the mosque of Akhí-Chelebí, where the Prophet appeared to him in full glory, surrounded by all the saints of the Islám. When he wished to pray for the intercession (shifáa’t) of the Prophet, by mistake he asked for travelling (siyáhat), which was granted to him, together with permission to kiss the hands of the Prophet, the four Imáms, and of the saints. His friends the Sheikhs, from whom he requested the interpretation of this dream, assured him that he should enjoy the favour of monarchs, and the good fortune of visiting in his travels the tombs of all the saints and great men whom he had seen. From this moment he formed the resolution of passing his life in travelling, and visiting the tombs of the saints; thus his name Evliyá (saints) became significant, as he was all his life Mohibbi Evliyá, that is, the friend of the saints. This circumstance accounts for the predilection he evinces in visiting the tombs and monuments of the saints, as he often dwells with particular pleasure on the description of places of pilgrimage. Evliyá (the friend of saints), Háfiz (knowing the Korán by heart), and Siyyáh (the traveller), are the names by which he styles himself, although he is more commonly known by the name of Evliyá Chelebí or Efendí; and his work is called Siyyáh Námeh, or the History of the Traveller.

Having received his call by a vision of the Prophet, he commenced his travels by excursions through Constantinople and its environs, his topographical descriptions of which, as to the latter, are perhaps the best extant, and occupy the whole of the first volume. The most valuable portion of it is that towards the end, in which he gives a detailed account of the various corporations of tradesmen, and the rank they held in the solemn processions.

He travelled, as he frequently mentions, for forty-one years, so that he must have completed his travels in the year 1081 (A.D. 1670), when he was sixty-one years of age, and he seems to have devoted the rest of his life to repose, and to the writing of his travels, which extended to all parts of the Ottoman empire, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, except Tunis, Algiers, and Tripolis, which he never visited, and which he therefore passes over in his statistical account of the Ottoman empire. Besides travelling in Rumelia, Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt, he accompanied the Turkish Embassy to Vienna in 1664, as secretary, whence he proceeded to the Netherlands and Sweden, and returned by the Crimea. Though generally employed in diplomatic and financial missions, he was sometimes engaged in battles, and mentions having been present at twenty-two; the first of which was the expedition to Eriván, which took place the same year in which he entered and left the Seraglio (1645). His father, who had been standard-bearer at the siege of Siget (1564), and must at this time have been nearly ninety years of age, was ordered, together with some other veterans who had served under Sultán Suleïmán, to accompany the expedition in litters, merely to encourage the Janissaries. This was Evliyá’s first campaign, but he has left no account of it.

His second journey was to Brousa, in 1640, with the account of which he commences his second volume. This journey he undertook, together with some friends, without his father’s consent, and having visited all the baths, monuments, mosques, and public walks, he returned to Constantinople, where he was well received by his father.

In the beginning of Rebi-ul-evvel he set out on his third journey, which was to Nicomedia. On his return he visited the Princes’ Islands, and arrived at Constantinople a month after he had left it.

Ketánjí Omar Páshá having been appointed to the government of Trebisonde, he made his old friend, Evliyá’s father, his agent at Constantinople, and took Evliyá along with him. They left Constantinople in the beginning of Rebi-ul-ákhir, and proceeded to Trebisonde, coasting by Kefken, Heraclea, Amassera, Sinope, Samsún, and Kherson. From Trebisonde he was ordered to attend the zemburukchís (camel-artillery) of Gonia to the siege of Azov in 1051. He proceeded along the shores of the Black Sea through the country of the Abáza, the history and description of which form the most interesting part of Evliyá’s travels. The fleet destined for Azov reached Anapa shortly after the arrival of Evliyá. He immediately waited upon the commander, Delí Husain Páshá, who received him into his suite, and placed him on board the galley of his kehiyá. They sailed for Azov on the 12th of Sha’bán. Evliyá was present at the siege, which being unsuccessful, was raised, and he accompanied the Tatár Khán’s army, which returned to the Crimea by land. At Bálakláva he embarked for Constantinople, but was wrecked, and escaped with only two slaves out of the many whom he had collected in his travels through Abáza and Mingrelia. He was thrown on the coast of Kilyra, whence he proceeded to Constantinople.

In 1055 (1645) the fleet was fitted out, as was generally rumoured, for an expedition against Malta, and Evliyá embarked on board the ship of the Capudán Páshá, Yúsuf Páshá, in the capacity of Móazzin-báshí.[3] The expedition, however, having touched at the Morea, suddenly turned upon Candia, where Evliyá was present at the reduction of the castle of St. Todero, and the siege of Canea; after which he attended several military excursions to Dalmatia and Sebenico.

On his return to Constantinople he made arrangements for his sixth journey, with Defterdár Zádeh Mohammed Páshá, who was at that time appointed governor of Erzerúm, and whom Evliyá accompanied as clerk of the custom-house at Erzerúm. Their route lay through Nicomedia, Sabanja, Bólí, Túsia, Amásia, Nígísár, and they reached Erzerúm, having made seventy stages. Shortly afterwards the Páshá sent him on a mission to the Khán of Tabríz, with a view to facilitate a commercial intercourse. This was Evliyá’s first journey into Persia. On his way he visited Etchmiazin, Nakhcheván, and Merend; and returned by Aján, Erdebíl, Eriván, Bakú, Derbend, Kákht, the plain of Chaldirán, and the fortress of Akhíska. Ten days after he was again despatched to Eriván, on returning from which he resumed his duties at the custom-house. He was, however, scarcely settled, when the Páshá sent him on a mission to the governor of the Sanjaks of Jánja and Tortúm, in order to collect the troops which had been ordered by a Khatt-i-sheríf. With this commission he visited the towns of Baiburd, Jánja, Isper, Tortúm, Akchekala’, and Gonia, of which latter the Cossacks had at that time taken possession. Evliyá witnessed its reduction, and was the first to proclaim on its walls the faith of the Islám.

The Mingrelians having revolted on the occasion of one of the Cossack inroads, a predatory expedition into Mingrelia was undertaken by Seidí Ahmed Páshá; and Evliyá having over-run the country with his plundering party, returned to Erzerúm, whence, on the 18th of Zilka’da, he set out on his return to Constantinople. His Páshá, Defterdár Zádeh Mohammed, having openly rebelled against the Porte, he followed him from Erzerúm through Kumákh, Erzenján, Shínkara-hisár, Ládík, Merzifún, Koprí, Gumish, Jorúm, and Tokát. He once fell into the hands of robbers, but fortunately effecting his escape, he followed his master to Angora. The inhabitants of this town not permitting the Páshá to shut himself up in the castle, he was again obliged to take the field. His great ally Várvár Páshá, on whose account he had rebelled, though he had beaten and made prisoners several Páshás (amongst whom was Kopreilí, afterwards celebrated as the first Grand Vezír of the family), was at last defeated, and killed by Ibshír Páshá. Defterdár Zádeh Mohammed Páshá, however, managed his affairs so well, that he obtained not only his pardon but a new appointment. Evliyá was with him at Begbázár, when he received the intelligence of his father’s death, and that all his property had fallen to his step-mother and his sisters. On hearing this he took leave of Defterdár Zádeh, and proceeded by Turbelí, Taráklí, and Kíva, to Constantinople, where he arrived at the time of the great revolution, by which Sultán Selím was deposed, and Mohammed IV. raised to the throne. Evliyá’s account of this revolution, and of the principal actors in it, is so much the more interesting, that the chief favourite of Ibrahím, the famous Jinjí Khoajeh, of whose ignorance he makes mention, had been Evliyá’s school-fellow. Evliyá, however, had been well treated by him, and received as an old school-fellow, shortly before his own fall, and that of his royal master, Ibrahím, which happened in the year 1058 (1648).

Evliyá next attached himself to Silihdár Murtezá Páshá, who was appointed Governor of Damascus, as Moazzin-báshí (an office which, as before mentioned, he had held under Yúsuf Páshá, in the expedition against Canea), and as Imám Mahmil, or priest of the caravan of pilgrims to Mecca. He left Constantinople in the beginning of Sha’bán 1058 (1648).

The third volume commences with an account of his seventh great journey, which was to Damascus. He had scarcely arrived at this place when he was sent by Murtezá Páshá on a mission to Constantinople. This journey was performed very rapidly, and he gives no particular account of it, only mentioning that he met some of the robbers belonging to the party of Kátirjí Oghlí.

He returned with the same despatch to Damascus, whence he set out on his pilgrimage to Mecca, through Egypt. Of this pilgrimage no account is given in our manuscript copy, as it seems he died before he had completed the work. There is no question, however, as to the time at which it was undertaken, since in his account of the reign of Sultán Murád IV. he states that he was just in time, after his return from Mecca through Egypt, to share in the glory of the victory gained by Murtezá Páshá over the Druzes, in the year 1059. Now Evliyá’s account of this expedition commences in the month of Moharrem 1059, from which it may be supposed that he had just returned from Mecca, where the annual ceremonies of the pilgrimage take place in Zilhijeh, the last month of the year.

Evliyá was employed by Murtezá on various missions, the object of which was to collect debts and exact money. On such errands he was sent to Mount Lebanon, Karak, Balbek, Akka, Yaffa, and Haleb, whence he took a journey to Rakka, Roha, Bális, Meraash, Kaisari, and over Mount Arjísh (Argaus) to Ak-seráï, Sívás, Díárbekr, and in the year 1060 (1650) returned to Constantinople by Ainehbázár, Merzifún, Kanghrí, Kastemúni, and Táshkoprí.

He now entered the service of his uncle, Melek Ahmed Páshá, who, after having been Grand Vezír for some time, was removed to the government of Oczakov, and afterwards to that of Silistria, in the year 1061 (1651). Evliyá accompanied him, and this was his ninth journey, reckoning each journey by his return to Constantinople. He travelled over the whole of Rumelia, and made some stay at Adrianople, of which he gives a detailed account, and thus completes his description of the three Ottoman capitals, viz. Constantinople, Brousa, and Adrianople. He left Adrianople with his uncle and patron, Melek Ahmed, who was now raised to the rank of a Vezír of the Cupola at Constantinople; but being unable, notwithstanding his marriage to a Sultána, to maintain his credit in the Ottoman court during these revolutionary times, he was obliged to accept the government of Ván, to which he proceeded with great reluctance. Evliyá, who had been left behind, followed him a few days after, having been despatched by the Sultána, the lady of Melek Ahmed. He travelled through Sívás, Malátía, Díárbekr, Márdín, Sinjár, Míáfarakain, Bedlís, and Akhlát. A considerable portion of his narrative is devoted to the history of the warfare between Melek Ahmed Páshá and the Khán of Tiflís, the latter of whom was beaten and deposed; and his account of the Kurds, and their different tribes, is not less interesting than that in his second volume of the Abázas on the eastern coasts of the Black Sea.

Having already given proofs of his abilities in diplomatic affairs when employed by Defterdár Zádeh Mohammed Páshá, on missions to Tabríz and Eriván, and by Murtezá Páshá in his Syrian missions, Evliyá was now entrusted by Melek Ahmed with several missions to the Persian Kháns of Tabríz and Rúmia, with the view of reclaiming seventy thousand sheep, and the liberation of Murtezá Páshá, who was kept a prisoner by the Khán of Dembolí. From Tabríz he went through Hamadán to Baghdád, his description of which, and its environs, of Basra and of the ruins of Kúfa, contains some most important geographical notices. From Basra he travelled to Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, and returned to Baghdád by Basra, Váset, and Kala’i Hasan. In a second excursion he visited Háver, Arbíl, Sheherzor, Amadia, Jezín, Husnkeif, Nisibin, and returned to Baghdád by Hamíd, Mousul, and Tekrít. With the account of these the author concludes his fourth volume; and notwithstanding every endeavour, and the most careful search in all the markets and sales, no more of the work has been discovered. It may, therefore, be taken for granted that he never wrote any continuation of it. The fourth volume ends with the year 1066 (1655), and these four volumes embrace only a period of twenty-six years of the forty-one which Evliyá spent in travelling. Of the events of the remaining fifteen, the following notes may be collected from his own work.

In the year 1070 (1659) Evliyá accompanied the expedition into Moldavia, and assisted at the conquest of Waradin. The Ottoman armies extended their inroads as far as Orsova and Cronstadt in Transylvania, and Evliyá received twenty prisoners as his share of the booty. He then joined his uncle and patron, Melek Ahmed Páshá, then governor of Bosnia, who on the 12th of Rebi-ul-evvel 1071 (1660), was appointed governor of Rúmeili. With him, in the following year, Evliyá made the campaign into Transylvania, which was then disturbed by the pretenders to the crown, Kemeny and Apasty. He was at Saswár when the news arrived of the death of the Grand Vezír, Mohammed Kopreïlí, in 1071 (1660). After the battle of Forgaras he left Transylvania, and took up his winter quarters with Melek Ahmed Páshá at Belgrade. Melek Ahmed was shortly afterwards recalled to Constantinople in order to be married (his first Sultána having died) to Fátima, the daughter of Sultán Ahmed. He died after he had been a Vezír of the Cupola three months; and thus “poor Evliyá” (as he generally calls himself) was left without a protector. He, however, remained in the army, then engaged in the Hungarian war, till the year 1075 (1664), when Kara Mohammed Páshá was sent on an embassy to Vienna, and Evliyá, by the express command of the Sultán, was appointed secretary of the embassy. The ambassador returned in the ensuing year to Constantinople, as may be seen by his own report, published in the Ottoman Annals of Rashíd; but Evliyá having obtained an imperial patent, continued his travels through Germany and the Netherlands, as far as Dunkirk, through Holland, Denmark, and Sweden, and returned through Poland, by Cracovie and Danzig, to the Crimea, after a journey of three years and a half, thus finishing, on the frontiers of Russia, as he himself states, his travels through “the seven climates.”

Although he repeatedly mentions his travels through Europe, it is doubtful whether he ever wrote them; from doing which he was probably prevented by death, when he had completed his fourth volume. It appears that after having travelled for forty years, he spent the remainder of his days in retirement at Adrianople, where he probably died, and where his tomb might be looked for. It also appears that the last ten years of his life were devoted to the writing of his travels, and that he died about the year 1090 at the age of seventy.

This supposition is borne out by his mentioning, in his historical account of the reign of Sultán Mohammed IV., the conquest of Candia which took place in 1089 (1678); and further by his speaking of his fifty years’ experience since he commenced the world, which must refer to the year 1040, when, at the age of twenty, he entered upon his travels; during which he declares he saw the countries of eighteen monarchs, and heard one hundred and forty-seven different languages.

The motto on his seal, which he presented to a Persian Khán of his own name, was: “Evliyá hopes for the intercession of the chief of saints and prophets.”[4]

Judging from the chronographs and verses which he inscribed on several monuments, and the errors into which he frequently falls respecting ancient history, Evliyá must be considered as but an indifferent poet and historian. But in his descriptions of the countries which he visited he is most faithful, and his work must be allowed to be unequalled by any other hitherto known Oriental travels. Independent of the impression made upon him by his dream, that by the blessing of the Prophet he was to visit the tombs of all the saints whom he had seen in their glory, he found that his lot was to travel; and besides the name of Háfiz (knowing the Korán by heart), he well deserved par excellence that of Siyyáh or the traveller.

CONTENTS.

THE
TRAVELS
OF
EVLIYA EFENDÍ.

IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE ALL-CLEMENT, THE ALL-MERCIFUL!

To GOD, who ennobles exalted minds by travels, and has enabled me to visit the holy places; to Him who laid the foundations of the fortresses of legislation, and established them on the groundwork of prophecy and revelation, all praise be given: and may the richest blessings and most excellent benedictions be offered to the most noble and perfect of all creatures, the pattern of prayer, who said, “Pray as you see me pray;” to the infallible guide, Mohammed; because it is in his favour that God, the Lord of empires and Creator of the heavens, made the earth an agreeable residence for the sons of Adam, and created man the most noble of all his creatures. Praise to Him, who directs all events according to His will, without injustice or incongruity! And, after having offered all adoration to God, let every pious aspiration be expressed for the prosperity of his shadow upon earth, the ruler of terrestrial things, the Sultán son of a Sultán, the victorious Prince Murád Khán, fourth son of Sultán Ahmed Khán, and eighth in descent from Sultán Mohammed Khán, the Conqueror, the mercy of God rest upon them all! but most especially on Sultán Murád Gházi, the conqueror of Baghdád, the great Monarch with whose service I was blessed when I began to write an account of my travels.

It was in the time of his illustrious reign, in the year A.H. 1041 (A.D. 1631), that by making excursions on foot in the villages and gardens near Islámbúl (Constantinople), I began to think of extensive travels, and to escape from the power of my father, mother, and brethren. Forming a design of travelling over the whole earth, I entreated God to give me health for my body and faith for my soul; I sought the conversation of dervíshes, and when I had heard a description of the seven climates and of the four quarters of the earth, I became still more anxious to see the world, to visit the Holy Land, Cairo, Damascus, Mecca and Medina, and to prostrate myself on the purified soil of the places where the prophet, the glory of all creatures, was born, and died.

I, a poor, destitute traveller, but a friend of mankind, Evliyà, son of the dervísh Mohammed, being continually engaged in prayer and petitions for divine guidance, meditating upon the holy chapters and mighty verses of the Korán, and looking out for assistance from above, was blessed in the night ’Ashúrá, in the month of Moharrem, while sleeping in my father’s house at Islámbúl, with the following vision: I dreamt that I was in the mosque of Akhí chelebí, near the Yemish iskeleh-sí (fruit-stairs or scale), a mosque built with money lawfully gotten, from which prayers therefore ascend to heaven. The gates were thrown open at once, and the mosque filled with a brilliant crowd who were saying the morning prayers. I was concealed behind the pulpit, and was lost in astonishment on beholding that brilliant assembly. I looked on my neighbour, and said, “May I ask, my lord, who you are, and what is your illustrious name?” He answered, “I am one of the ten evangelists, Sa’d Vakkás, the patron of archers.” I kissed his hands, and asked further: “Who are the refulgent multitude on my right hand?” He said, “They are all blessed saints and pure spirits, the spirits of the followers of the Prophet, the Muhájirín, who followed him in his flight from Mecca, and the Ansárí who assisted him on his arrival at Medína, the companions of Saffah and the martyrs of Kerbelá. On the right of the mihráb (altar) stand Abú Bekr and ’Omar, and on the left ’Osmán and ’Ali; before it stands Veis; and close to the left wall of the mosque, the first Muezzin, Belál the Habeshí. The man who regulates and ranks the whole assembly is Amru. Observe the host in red garments now advancing with a standard; that is the host of martyrs who fell in the holy wars, with the hero Hamzah at their head.” Thus did he point out to me the different companies of that blessed assembly, and each time I looked on one of them, I laid my hand on my breast, and felt my soul refreshed by the sight. “My lord,” said I, “what is the reason of the appearance of this assembly in this mosque?” He answered, “The faithful Tátárs being in great danger at Azák (Azof), we are marching to their assistance. The Prophet himself, with his two grandsons Hasan and Hosaïn, the twelve Imáms and the ten disciples, will immediately come hither to perform the appointed morning service (sabáh-namáz). They will give you a sign to perform your duty as Muezzin, which you must do accordingly. You must begin to cry out with a loud voice ‘Allah Ekber’ (God is great!) and then repeat the verses of the Throne (Súrah II. 259). Belál will repeat the ‘Subhánullah’ (Glory to God!), and you must answer ‘Elhamdu-li-llah’ (God be praised!) Belál will answer, ‘Allah ekber,’ and you must say ‘Amín’ (Amen), while we all join in the tevhíd (i.e. declaration of the divine unity). You shall then, after saying ‘Blessed be all the prophets, and praise to God the Lord of both worlds,’ get up, and kiss the hand of the prophet, saying ‘Yá resúlu-llah’ (O Apostle of God!).”

When Sa’d Vakkás had given me these instructions, I saw flashes of lightning burst from the door of the mosque, and the whole building was filled with a refulgent crowd of saints and martyrs all standing up at once. It was the prophet overshadowed by his green banner, covered with his green veil, carrying his staff in his right hand, having his sword girt on his thigh, with the Imám Hasan on his right hand, and the Imám Hoseïn on his left. As he placed his right foot on the threshold, he cried out “Bismillah,” and throwing off his veil, said, “Es-selám aleik yá ommetí” (health unto thee, O my people). The whole assembly answered: “Unto thee be health, O prophet of God, lord of the nations!” The prophet advanced towards the mihráb and offered up a morning prayer of two inflexions (rik’ah). I trembled in every limb; but observed, however, the whole of his sacred figure, and found it exactly agreeing with the description given in the Hallyehi khákání. The veil on his face was a white shawl, and his turban was formed of a white sash with twelve folds; his mantle was of camel’s hair, in colour inclining to yellow; on his neck he wore a yellow woollen shawl. His boots were yellow, and in his turban was stuck a toothpick. After giving the salutation he looked upon me, and having struck his knees with his right hand, commanded me to stand up and take the lead in the prayer. I began immediately, according to the instruction of Belál, by saying: “The blessing of God be upon our lord Mohammed and his family, and may He grant them peace!” afterwards adding, “Allah ekber.” The prophet followed by saying the fátihah (the 1st chap. of the Korán), and some other verses. I then recited that of the throne. Belál pronounced the Subhánu’llah, I the El-hamdulillah, and Belál the Allah ekber. The whole service was closed by a general cry of “Allah,” which very nearly awoke me from my sleep. After the prophet had repeated some verses, from the Suráh yás, and other chapters of the Korán, Sa’d Vakkás took me by the hand and carried me before him, saying: “Thy loving and faithful servant Evliyà entreats thy intercession.” I kissed his hand, pouring forth tears, and instead of crying “shifá’at (intercession),” I said, from my confusion, “siyáhat (travelling) O apostle of God!” The prophet smiled, and said, “Shifá’at and siyáhat (i.e. intercession and travelling) be granted to thee, with health and peace!” He then again repeated the fátihah, in which he was followed by the whole assembly, and I afterwards went round, kissed the hands, and received the blessings of each. Their hands were perfumed with musk, ambergris, spikenard, sweet-basil, violets, and carnations; but that of the prophet himself smelt of nothing but saffron and roses, felt when touched as if it had no bones, and was as soft as cotton. The hands of the other prophets had the odour of quinces; that of Abú-bekr had the fragrance of melons, ’Omar’s smelt like ambergris, ’Osmán’s like violets, Alí’s like jessamine, Hasán’s like carnations, and Hoseïn’s like white roses. When I had kissed the hands of each, the prophet had again recited the fátihah, all his chosen companions had repeated aloud the seven verses of that exordium to the Korán (saba’u-l mesání); and the prophet himself had pronounced the parting salutation (es-selám aleïkom eyyá ikhwánún) from the mihráb; he advanced towards the door, and the whole illustrious assembly giving me various greetings and blessings, went out of the mosque. Sa’d Vakkás at the same time, taking his quiver from his own belt and putting it into mine, said: “Go, be victorious with thy bow and arrow; be in God’s keeping, and receive from me the good tidings that thou shalt visit the tombs of all the prophets and holy men whose hands thou hast now kissed. Thou shalt travel through the whole world, and be a marvel among men. Of the countries through which thou shalt pass, of their castles, strong-holds, wonderful antiquities, products, eatables and drinkables, arts and manufacturers, the extent of their provinces, and the length of the days there, draw up a description, which shall be a monument worthy of thee. Use my arms, and never depart, my son, from the ways of God. Be free from fraud and malice, thankful for bread and salt (hospitality), a faithful friend to the good, but no friend to the bad.” Having finished his sermon, he kissed my hand, and went out of the mosque. When I awoke, I was in great doubt whether what I had seen were a dream or a reality; and I enjoyed for some time the beatific contemplations which filled my soul. Having afterwards performed my ablutions, and offered up the morning prayer (saláti fejrí), I crossed over from Constantinople to the suburb of Kásim-páshá, and consulted the interpreter of dreams, Ibráhím Efendí, about my vision. From him I received the comfortable news that I should become a great traveller, and after making my way through the world, by the intercession of the prophet, should close my career by being admitted into Paradise. I next went to Abdu-llah Dedeh, Sheïkh of the convent of Mevleví Dervíshes in the same suburb (Kásim-páshá), and having kissed his hand, related my vision to him. He interpreted it in the same satisfactory manner, and presenting to me seven historical works, and recommending me to follow Sa’d Vakkás’s counsels, dismissed me with prayers for my success. I then retired to my humble abode, applied myself to the study of history, and began a description of my birth-place, Islámbúl, that envy of kings, the celestial haven, and strong-hold of Mákedún (Macedonia, i.e. Constantinople).

SECTION I.

Infinite praise and glory be given to that cherisher of worlds, who by his word “BE,” called into existence earth and heaven, and all his various creatures; be innumerable encomiums also bestowed on the beloved of God, Mohammed Al-Mustafà, Captain of holy warriors, heir of the kingdom of law and justice, conqueror of Mecca, Bedr, and Honaïn, who, after those glorious victories, encouraged his people by his noble precepts (hadís) to conquer Arabia (Yemen), Egypt (Misr), Syria (Shám), and Constantinople (Kostantiniyyeh).

Sayings (hadís) of the Prophet respecting Constantinople.

The prophet said: “Verily Constantinople shall be conquered; and excellent is the commander (emír), excellent the army, who shall take it from the opposing people!”

Some thousands of proofs could be brought to shew, that Islámbúl is the largest of all inhabited cities on the face of the earth; but the clearest of those proofs is the following saying of the prophet, handed down by Ebú Hureïreh. The prophet of God said: “Have you heard of a town, one part of it situated on the land, and two parts on the sea?” They answered, “yea! O prophet of God;” he said, “the hour will come when it shall be changed by seventy of the children of Isaac.” From (Esau) Aïs, who is here signified by the children of Isaac, the nation of the Greeks is descended, whose possession of Kostantiniyyeh was thus pointed out. There are also seventy more sacred traditions preserved by Mo’áviyyah Khálid ibn Velíd, Iyyúb el-ensárí, and ’Abdu-l-’azíz, to the same effect, viz. “Ah! if we were so happy as to be the conquerors of Kostantiniyyeh!” They made, therefore, every possible endeavour to conquer Rúm (the Byzantine empire); and, if it please God, a more detailed account of their different sieges of Kostantiniyyeh shall be given hereafter.

SECTION II.

An Account of the Foundation of the ancient City and Seat of Empire of the Macedonian Greeks (Yúnániyyáni Mákedúniyyah), i.e. the well-guarded Kostantiniyyeh, the envy of all the Kings of the Land of Islám.

It was first built by Solomon, and has been described by some thousands of historians. The date of its capture is contained in those words of the Korán, “The exalted city” (beldah tayyibeh), and to it some commentators apply the following text: “Have not the Greeks been vanquished in the lowest parts of the earth?” (Kor. xxx. 1.) and “An excellent city, the like of which hath never been created.” All the ancient Greek historians are agreed, that it was first built by Solomon, son of David, 1600 years before the birth of the Prophet; they say he caused a lofty palace to be erected by Genii, on the spot now called Seraglio-Point, in order to please the daughter of Saïdún, sovereign of Ferendún, an island in the Western Ocean (Okiyúnús).

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.

Concerning the Canal from the river Dóná (Danube).

King Yánván, wishing to provide water for the great city of Islámbúl, undertook to make a canal to it from the Danube. For that purpose he began to dig in the high road near the castles of Severin and Siverin, not far from the fortress of Fet’h-islám, on the bank of that river; and by those means brought its waters to the place called Azád-lí, in the neighbourhood of Constantinople. He afterwards built, in the bed of the river, a barrier of solid stone, with an iron gate, which is still to be seen, as the writer of these sheets has witnessed three different times, when employed there on the public service. The place is now called the iron gate of the Danube (Dóná demir kapú-sí), and is much feared by the boat-men, who sometimes unload their vessels there, as, when lightened of their cargoes, they can pass over it in safety.

He also built another wear or barrier in the Danube, now called Tahtah-lú sedd, upon which many ships perish every year. It was when that river overflowed in the spring, that king Yánván opened the iron gate and the barrier, to allow the stream to pass down to Islámbúl, where it discharges itself into the White Sea, at the gate called Istirdiyah kapú-sí (the Oyster-gate), now Lan-ghah kapú-sí. All this was done by king Yánván during the absence of king Vezendún, who was gone on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On his return, his uncle Kójah Yánván went over to Scutari to meet him; and as soon as they met: “Well, my uncle,” said Vezendún, have you succeeded in your undertaking with regard to the Danube?”—“I dragged it, O king,” said he, “by the hair, like a woman, into Mákedúniyyah (Constantinople), through which it now runs.” Scarcely had he uttered this haughty answer, when, by the command of God, the river suddenly returned, deserting its new bed, and bursting forth in a large fountain, at a place called Dóna-degirmánlerí (the Mills of the Danube), between Várnah and Parávádí, where a mighty stream turns a great number of mills, which supply all the people of Dóbrújah with flour. Another branch of the Danube bursts forth near Kirk Kilisá (the Forty Churches), from the rocks of Bunár-hisár (Castle of the Source). A third branch broke out in the lakes of Buyúk and Kuchúk Chekmejeh, whence it unites with the Grecian (Rúmí) sea. The proof that all these streams have their source in the Danube is that they contain fish peculiar to that river, such as tunnies, sturgeons, &c., as I myself have more than once witnessed, when observing what the fishermen caught in the lakes just named. It is also mentioned in the historical work entitled Tohfet, that Yilderim Báyazíd (Bajazet) when he conquered Nigehbólí (Nicopolis) and Fet-h-islám, having heard of the ancient course of the Danube, caused straw and charcoal to be passed into it through the iron gate, and that they afterwards appeared again at the above-named lakes Bunár-hisár and Dónah-degirmánlerí. When travelling with the Princess Fatimah, daughter of Sultán Ahmed, and Suleïmán Beg, we stopped at the village of Azád-lí, between Chatáljeh and Islámbúl, where there are evident marks of the ancient channel of the Danube, cut by art through rocks towering to the skies. We penetrated into those caverns on horseback, with lighted torches, and advanced for an hour in a northerly direction; but were obliged to return by bad smells, and a multitude of bats as big as pigeons. If the sultáns of the house of ’Osmán should think it worth their while, they might, at a small expense, again bring the waters of the Danube by Yeníbághcheh and Ak-seráï to Islámbul.

The eighth builder of that city was a king of the name of Yaghfur, son of Vezendún, who placed no less than three hundred and sixty-six talismans (one for every day in the year) near the sea at Seraglio-Point, and as many on the hills by land, to guard the city from all evil, and provide the inhabitants with all sorts of fish.

The ninth builder was Kostantín (Constantine), who conquered the ancient town and gave his name to the new city. He built a famous church on the place where the mosque of Mohamed II. now stands, and a large monastery, dedicated to St. John, on the hill of Zírek-báshí, with the cistern near it; as well as the cisterns of Sultán Selím, Sívásí tekiyeh-sí, near Ma’júnjí Mahal-leh-si, and Kedek-Páshá. He erected the column in the táúk-bázár (poultry market), and a great many other talismans.

SECTION IV.

Concerning Constantine, the ninth Builder, who erected the Walls and Castle of Constantinople.

He was the first Roman emperor who destroyed the idols and temples of the Heathens, and he was also the builder of the walls of Islámbúl. ’Isá (Jesus) having appeared to him in a dream, and told him to send his mother Helláneh (Helena) to build a place of worship at his birth-place Beïtu-l-lahm (Bethlehem), and another at the place of his sepulchre in Kudsi Sheríf (Jerusalem), he despatched her with an immense treasure and army to Felestín (Palestine); she reached Yáfah (Jaffa), the port of Jerusalem, in three days and three nights, built the two churches named above, and a large convent in the town of Nábulús.

The Discovery of the true Cross.

By the assistance of a monk called Magháriyús (Macarius), she found the place where the true cross was buried. Three trees in the form of crosses were found in the same grave, and the moment, as the Christians relate, a dead body was touched by them, it came to life again: this day was the 4th of Eïlúl (September), which is therefore celebrated by the Christians as the feast of the Invention of the Cross, and has ever since been held as a great festival by the Greeks. Helláneh also built the convent of the Kamámeh (i.e. the church of the holy sepulchre) on the spot where the dead body had been restored to life, spent immense sums of money in repairing and adorning the mosque of Al-aksá built on the site of the temple of Solomon, restored Bethlehem, and did many other charitable and pious works. She then returned to Islámbúl, and presented the wood of the cross to her son Constantine, who received it with the greatest reverence, and carried it in solemn procession to the convent on the summit of Zírek-báshí. The noblest monuments of his power and resolution to surpass all other princes in the strength and durability of his works, are the walls of Constantinople. On the land side of the city, from the Seven Towers at its western extremity to Iyyúb Ansárí, he built two strongly fortified walls. The height of the outer wall is forty-two cubits, and its breadth ten cubits; the inner wall is seventy cubits high and twenty broad. The space between them both is eighty cubits broad, and has been converted into gardens blooming as Irem; and at present, in the space between the Artillery (Tóp-kapú) and Adrianople gates (Edreneh-kapú), are the summer-quarters (yáïlák) of the Zagharjíes, or 64th regiment of the Janissaries.

Outside of the exterior wall he built a third, the height of which, measured from the bottom of the ditch, is twenty-five cubits, and its breadth six cubits; the distance between this and the middle wall being forty cubits: and beyond the third wall there is a ditch one hundred cubits broad, into which the sea formerly passed from the Seven Towers as far as the gate of Silivrí; and being admitted on the other side from the gate of Iyyúb Ansárí to the Crooked gate (Egrí-kapú), the town was insulated. This triple row of walls still exists, and is strengthened by 1225 towers, on each of which ten watchful monks were stationed to keep watch, day and night. The form of Islámbúl is triangular, having the land on its western side, and being girt by the sea on the east and north, but guarded there also by a single embattled wall, as strong as the rampart of Gog and Magog. Constantine having, by his knowledge of astrology, foreseen the rise and ascendancy of the Prophet, and dreading the conquest of his city by some all-conquering apostle of the true faith, laid the foundation of these walls under the sign of Cancer, and thus gave rise to the incessant mutinies by which its tranquillity has been disturbed. It is eighteen miles in circuit; and at one of its angles are the Seven Towers pointing to the Kiblah (Meccah). The Seraglio-point (Seráï-búruní) forms its northern, and the gate of Iyyúb its third and north-western angle. Constantine having taking to wife a daughter of the Genoese king (Jenúz Králí), allowed him to build some strong fortifications on the northern side of the harbour, which were called Ghalatah, from the Greek word ghalah (γάλα, milk), because Constantine’s cow-houses and dairy were situated there.

Names of Constantinople in different Tongues.

Its first name in the Latin tongue was Makdúniyyah (Macedonia); then Yánkóvíchah in the Syrian (Suryání), from its founder Yánkó. Next in the Hebrew (’Ibrí) Alkesándeïrah (Alexandria) from Alexander; afterwards Púzenteh (Byzantium); then for a time, in the language of the Jews, Vezendúniyyeh; then by the Franks Yaghfúriyyeh. When Constantine had rebuilt it the ninth time, it was called Púznátiyám in the language of the Greeks, and Kostantaniyyeh; in German Kostantín-ópól; in the Muscovite tongue Tekúriyyah; in the language of Africa, Ghiránduviyyeh; in Hungarian, Vizendú-vár; in Polish, Kanátúryah; in Bohemian, Aliyáná; in Swedish (Esfaj), Khiraklibán; in Flemish, Isteghániyyeh; in French, Aghrándónah; in Portuguese, Kósatiyah; in Arabic, Kostantínah; in Persian, Kaïsari Zemín; in Indian, Takhti Rúm (the throne of Rome); in Moghól, Hákdúrkán; in Tátár, Sakálibah; in the language of the ’Osmánlús, Islámbúl. Towards the sea it was never defended by a ditch, which is there superfluous, but by a single wall; but to guard the entrance of the Bosporus and Hellespont, and to increase the security of the city, the castles called Kilídu-l-bahreïn (i.e. the key of the two seas), were built. It is said to have had three hundred and sixty-six gates in the time of Constantine, who left only twenty-seven open, and walled up the rest, the places of which are still visible.

SECTION V.

Concerning the circumference of Constantinople.

In the year 1044 (1634) when I was first come to years of manhood, and used to walk with my friends all over Islámbúl, at the time that Sultán Murád IV. had marched against (Riván) Eriván, and Kójah Baïrám Páshá was left as Káyim-makám (viceroy), he used to visit my late father; and, in the course of conversation, inquire about the history of Islámbúl. “My lord,” said my father, “it has been built nine times, and nine times destroyed; but had never, since it has been in the hands of the house of ’Osmán, fallen into such decay as now, when waggons might be any where driven through the walls.” He then suggested to the Páshá, that this city, being the envy of the kings of the earth, and the royal residence of the house of ’Osmán, it would be unworthy him to suffer its walls to remain in that ruinous condition during the period of his government; and that when the Sultán returned victorious from Riván, he would be overjoyed on seeing “the good city,” his nest, as brilliant as a pearl, and compensate this service by large remunerations, while the name of the Páshá would also be blessed by future generations for so meritorious a work. All who were present applauded what my father had said, and he concluded by repeating the Fátihah. The Mólláhs of Islámbúl, Iyyúb, Ghalatah, and Uskudár (Scutari), the Shehr emíní (superintendent of the town), four chief architects, Seybánbáshí (the third in rank among the officers of the Janissaries), and all other men in office were immediately summoned together, with the Imáms of the 4,700 divisions (mahallah) of the city, for the purpose of giving aid in repairing the fortifications. Many thousands of masons and builders having been assembled, the great work was begun, and happily finished in the space of one year, before the return of the Sultán from his victorious campaign at Riván.

On receiving intelligence of the conquest of that fortress the joy was universal, and the city was illuminated for seven days and seven nights. It was then that a causeway, twenty cubits broad, was formed at the foot of the wall, along the sea-shore, from Seraglio-Point to the Seven Towers; and on it a high road was made for the convenience of the sailors, who drag their vessels by ropes round the point into the harbour. Close to the wall, all the houses, within and without, were purchased by government, and pulled down to make room for the road, and I then was enabled to measure the circumference of the city, by pacing it round as I shall now explain.

Having said a bismillah on setting out, and going along the edge of the ditch, from the Seven Towers to Abú Iyyúb Ensárí, I found the distance measured 8,810 paces, exclusive of the eight gates. From the little gate of Iyyúb to the Garden-gate (Bághcheh kapú), including the Martyrs gate (Shehíd kapú-sí), a space comprehending fourteen gates, there are 6,500 paces. The new palace (Yení seráï), which is the threshold of the abode of felicity (Asitánehi Dáru-s-se’ádet), beginning from the barley-granary (Arpá-enbárí), which is near the head-lime-burners gate (kirej-chí báshí kapú-sí), has, in its whole circumference, sixteen gates, ten of which are open, and six closed, except on extraordinary occasions. The entire circuit of this new palace, built by Mohammed (II.) the conqueror, is 6,500 paces. The distance from the Stable gate (Akhór-kapú), along the new-made high road to the angle of the Seven Towers, measures 10,000 paces, and comprehends seven gates. According to this calculation, the whole circumference of Islámbúl measures 30,000 paces, having ten towers in every thousand paces, and four hundred towers in the sum total; but, taking into the account those in the triple wall on the land side, there are altogether 1,225 large towers; of which, some are square, some round, some hexagonal. When Baïrám Páshá had undertaken a complete repair of the fortifications, he ordered the walls to be measured by the builders’ ell (arshín), and the whole circumference of the city was found to be exactly 87,000 ells or cubits (zirá’).

In the time of Kostantín (Constantine), there were five hundred cannons planted on the arsenal (Tóp-khánah) near the lead-magazine, of which the iron gates are still visible; the same number was planted near Seraglio-Point, and a hundred round the foot of the Maiden’s Tower (Kiz kulleh-sí, i.e. the Tower of Leander). Not a bird could cross without being struck from one of these three batteries, so secure was Islámbúl from any hostile attack. There was then a triple chain drawn from Ghalatah to Yemish Iskeleh-sí, upon which a large bridge was built, affording a passage for comers and goers, and opening when necessary to allow the ships to go through. There were two other bridges also across the sea, from Balát kapú-sí (Palace gate) to the garden of the arsenal (Ters-kháneh-bághcheh-sí), and from Iyyúb to Súdlíjeh. In the time of Yánkó Ibn Mádiyán, also, a triple chain of iron was drawn across the straits of the Black Sea (Karah deniz bóghází), at the foot of the castle called Yórúz (i.e. the castle of the Genoese), in order to prevent the passage of the enemy’s ships. I have seen fragments of these chains, which are still preserved at Islámbúl in the magazines of the arsenal, each ring of which is as wide across as a man’s waist, but they now lie covered with sand and rubbish. Islámbúl was then in so flourishing a state, that the whole shore to Silivrí one way, and to Terkóz on the Black Sea the other, was covered with towns and villages to the number of twelve hundred, surrounded by gardens and vineyards, and following each other in uninterrupted succession. Constantine, having reached the summit of greatness and power, could easily have conquered the world, but he preferred employing the remainder of his life in the embellishment of his capital. On the great festivals, such as the Red-egg-days (Kizil yúmurtah gúnlerí, i.e. Easter), Mother Meryem’s days (the Feasts of the Virgin), Isvat Nikólah (St. Nicolas), Kásim (St. Demetrius), Khizr Ilyás (St. George), Aúsh-dús, (i.e. the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, on the 14th of September), the casting of the crosses into the water (the Epiphany), the days of Karah-kóndjólóz (probably days on which evil spirits were exorcised), and on all Sundays (Bázár gúnlerí, i.e. market days), the walls of Constantinople were covered with scarlet cloth, and the emperor himself, having his beard adorned with pearls, and the Kayanian crown of Alexander on his head, walked in solemn procession through the streets of the city.

The number of Paces between each of the twenty-seven Gates.

These six gates are all on the west side of the city, looking towards Adrianople.

This, which is also called the Válideh kapú-sí (Queen Mothers-gate), was erected in order to give access to the new mosque built by that princess.

These fourteen gates, from Iyyúb-kapú-sí to Shehíd-kapú-sí, all open to the sea-shore, and face the north. The gates in the circuit of the imperial palace (seráï humáyún) are all private, and are, 1. the Kirech-jí (lime-burners); 2. the Oghrún, from which the corpses of criminals executed in the seraglio are thrown into the sea; 3. the Bálukchí (fishmongers); 4. the Ich ákhór (privy stable gate), looking southward; and 5. the gate of Báyazíd khán, which also faces the south, but is not always open. 6. The imperial (Bábi humáyún) or gate of felicity (Bábi Sa’ádet), also open to the south, and within it there are three gates in the same line: one of them is the (7.) Serví-kapú-sí (the cypress gate), by which the Sultán issues when he visits Sancta Sophia, or takes his rounds through the city in disguise; another is (8.) Sultán Ibráhím’s gate, also opening to the south, near the cold spring (sóúk cheshmeh); a third is (9.) the Sókóllí Mohammed Páshá kapú-sí, a small gate near the Aláï-kóshk, looking to the west; a fourth, also facing westward, is (10.) Suleïmán Khán kapú-sí, a small gate now always shut. (11.) The iron gate (Demir kapú) is a large portal facing the west, and appropriated to the use of the Bóstánjís and imperial favourites (Musáhibler, i.e. Ἑταίροι). The above-mentioned eight private gates, from the Akhór kapú to the Demir kapú, all open into the city; but there are nine other private gates opening to the sea on the Seraglio-Point, and facing the north.

Seven of these gates open towards the east, and as the winds blow from the south-east with great violence, the quay built by Baïrám Páshá was soon destroyed, so that when I paced the circuit, as mentioned above, in the reign of Ibráhím Khán, I was obliged to pass between the Stable-gate and the Seven Towers, within the walls. I then found the whole circuit to be 29,810 paces; but, in Baïrám Páshá’s time, when I went outside the walls, it measured exactly 30,000 paces, or 87,000 builders’ cubits (mïmár arshúní).

SECTION VI.

On the wonderful Talismans within and without Kostantíneh.

First talisman. In the ‘Avret-Bázárí (female-slave-market), there is a lofty column (the pillar of Arcadius) of white marble, inside of which there is a winding staircase. On the outside of it, figures of the soldiers of various nations, Hindustánies, Kurdistánies, and Múltánies, whom Yánkó ibn Mádiyán vanquished, were sculptured by his command; and on the summit of it there was anciently a fairy-cheeked female figure of one of the beauties of the age, which once a year gave a sound, on which many hundred thousand kinds of birds, after flying round and round the image, fell down to the earth, and being caught by the people of Rúm (Romelia), provided them with an abundant meal. Afterwards, in the age of Kostantín, the monks placed bells on the top of it, in order to give an alarm on the approach of an enemy; and subsequently, at the birth of the Prophet, there was a great earthquake, by which the statue and all the bells on the top of the pillar were thrown down topsy-turvy, and the column itself broken in pieces: but, having been formed by talismanic art, it could not be entirely destroyed, and part of it remains an extraordinary spectacle to the present day.

Second talisman. In the Táúk-Bázár (poultry-market) there is another needle-like column (the pillar of Theodosius), formed of many pieces of red emery (súmpáreh) stone, and a hundred royal cubits (zirá’ melikí) high. This was also damaged by the earthquake which occurred in the two nights during which the Pride of the World was called into existence; but the builders girt it round with iron hoops, as thick as a man’s thigh, in forty places, so that it is still firm and standing. It was erected a hundred and forty years before the era of Iskender; and Kostantín placed a talisman on the top of it in the form of a starling, which once a year clapped his wings, and brought all the birds in the air to the place, each with three olives in his beak and talons, for the same purpose as was related above.

Third talisman. At the head of the Serráj-kháneh (saddlers’ bazar), on the summit of a column stretching to the skies (the pillar of Marcian), there is a chest of white marble, in which the unlucky-starred daughter of king Puzentín (Byzantius) lies buried; and to preserve her remains from ants and serpents was this column made a talisman.

Fourth talisman. At the place called Altí Mermer (the six marbles), there are six columns, every one of which was an observatory, made by some of the ancient sages. On one of them, erected by the Hakím Fílikús (Philip), lord of the castle of Kaválah, was the figure of a black fly, made of brass, which, by its incessant humming, drove all flies away from Islámból.

Fifth talisman. On another of the six marble columns, Iflátún (Plato) the divine made the figure of a gnat, and from that time there is no fear of a single gnat‘s coming into Islámbúl.

Sixth talisman. On another of these columns, the Hakím Bokrát (Hippocrates) placed the figure of a stork, and once a year, when it uttered a cry, all the storks which had built their nests in the city died instantly. To this time, not a stork can come and build its nest within the walls of Islámból, though there are plenty of them in the suburbs of Abú Iyyúb Ensárí.

Seventh talisman. On the top of another of the six marble columns, Sokrát the Hakím (i.e. Socrates the sage) placed a brazen cock, which clapped its wings and crowed once in every twenty-four hours, and on hearing it all the cocks of Islámbúl began to crow. And it is a fact, that to this day the cocks there crow earlier than those of other places, setting up their kú-kirí-kúd (i.e. crowing) at midnight, and thus warning the sleepy and forgetful of the approach of dawn and the hour of prayer.

Eighth talisman. On another of the six columns, Físághórát (Pythagoras the Unitarian), in the days of the prophet Suleïmán (Solomon), placed the figure of a wolf, made of bronze (túj), the terror of all other wolves; so that the flocks of the people of Islámból pastured very safely without a shepherd, and walked side by side with untamed wolves very comfortably.

Ninth talisman. On another of these columns were the figures in brass of a youth and his mistress in close embrace; and whenever there was any coolness or quarrelling between man and wife, if either of them went and embraced this column, they were sure that very night to have their afflicted hearts restored by the joys of love, through the power of this talisman, which was moved by the spirit of the sage Aristatálís (Aristotle).

Tenth talisman. Two figures of tin had been placed on another of the six columns by the physician Jálínús (Galen). One was a decrepit old man, bent double; and opposite to it was a camel-lip sour-faced hag, not straighter than her companion: and when man and wife led no happy life together, if either of them embraced this column, a separation was sure to take place. Wonderful talismans were destroyed, they say, in the time of that asylum of apostleship (Mohammed), and are now buried in the earth.

Eleventh talisman. On the site of the baths of Sultán Báyazíd Velí there was a quadrangular column, eighty cubits high, erected by an ancient sage named Kirbáriyá, as a talisman against the plague, which could never prevail in Islámból as long as this column was standing. It was afterwards demolished by that sultán, who erected a heart-rejoicing hammám in its place; and on that very day one of his sons died of the plague, in the garden of Dáúd Páshá outside of the Adrianople-gate, and was buried on an elevated platform (soffah) without: since which time the plague has prevailed in the city.

Twelfth talisman. In the Tekfúr Seráï, near the Egrí kapú, there was a large solid bust of black stone, on which a man named Muhaydák placed a brazen figure of a demon (’afrít), which once a year spit out fire and flames; and whoever caught a spark kept it in his kitchen; and, as long as his health was good, that fire was never extinguished.

Thirteenth talisman. On the skirt of the place called Zírek-báshí there is a cavern dedicated to St. John, and every month, when the piercing cold of winter has set in, several black demons (kónjólóz) hide themselves there.

Fourteenth talisman. To the south of Ayá Sófiyah there were four lofty columns of white marble, bearing the statues of the four cherubs (kerrúblir), Gabriel (Jebráyíl), Michael (Míkáyíl), Rafael (Isráfíl), and Azrael (Azráyíl), turned towards the north, south, east, and west. Each of them clapped his wings once a year, and foreboded desolation, war, famine, or pestilence. These statues were upset when the Prophet came into existence, but the four columns still remain a public spectacle, near the subterraneous springs (chukúr cheshmeh) of Ayá Sófiyah.

Fifteenth talisman. The great work in the Atmeïdán (Hippodrome), called Milyón-pár (Millium?), is a lofty column, measuring a hundred and fifty cubits (arshún) of builders measure. It was constructed by order of Kostantín, of various coloured stones, collected from the 300,000 cities of which he was king, and designed to be an eternal monument of his power, and at the same time a talisman. Through the middle of it there ran a thick iron axis, round which the various coloured stones were placed, and they were all kept together by a magnet, as large as the cupola of a bath (hammám), fixed on its summit. It still remains a lasting monument; and its builder, the head architect, Ghúrbárín by name, lies buried at the foot of it.

Sixteenth talisman. This is also an obelisk of red coloured stone, covered with various sculptures, and situate in the At-meïdán. The figures on its sides foretell the different fortunes of the city. It was erected in the time of Yánkó ibn Mádiyán, who is represented on it sitting on his throne, and holding a ring in his hand, implying symbolically, ‘I have conquered the whole world, and hold it in my hands like this ring.’ His face is turned towards the east, and kings stand before him, holding dishes, in the guise of beggars. On another are the figures of three hundred men engaged in erecting the obelisk, with the various machines used for that purpose. Its circumference is such that ten men cannot span it; and its four angles rest on four brazen seats, such that, when one experienced in the builders art has looked at it, he puts his finger on his mouth.

Seventeenth talisman. A sage named Surendeh, who flourished in the days of error, under king Púzentín, set up a brazen image of a triple-headed dragon (azhderhá) in the Atmeïdán, in order to destroy all serpents, lizards, scorpions, and such like poisonous reptiles: and not a poisonous beast was there in the whole of Mákedóniyyah. It has now the form of a twisted serpent, measuring ten cubits above and as many below the ground. It remained thus buried in mud and earth from the building of Sultán Ahmed’s mosque, but uninjured, till Selím II., surnamed the drunken, passing by on horseback, knocked off with his mace the lower jaw of that head of the dragon which looks to the west. Serpents then made their appearance on the western side of the city, and since that time have become common in every part of it. If, moreover, the remaining heads should be destroyed, Islámból will be completely eaten up with vermin. In short, there were anciently, relating to the land at Islámból, three hundred and sixty-six talismans like those now described, which are all that now remain.

Talismans relating to the Sea.

First talisman. At the Chátládí-kapú, in the side of the palace of an emperor whom the sun never saw, there was the brazen figure of a demon (dív) upon a square column, which spit fire, and burnt the ships of the enemy whenever it was they approached from the White Sea (Archipelago).

Second talisman. In the galley-harbour (kadirghah límání) there was a brazen ship, in which, once a year, when the cold winter-nights had set in, all the Witches of Islámból used to embark and sail about till morning, to guard the White Sea. It was a part of the spoils captured with the city by Mohammed II. the conqueror.

Third talisman. Another brazen ship, the counterpart of this, was constructed at the Tóp-khánah (cannon-foundery), in which all the wizards and conjurors kept guard towards the Black Sea. It was broken in pieces when Yezíd Ibn Mo’áviyyah conquered Ghalatah.

Fourth talisman. At Seraglo-Point there was a triple-headed brazen dragon, spitting fire, and burning all the enemy’s ships and boats whichever way they came.

Fifth talisman. There were also, near the same place, three hundred and sixty-six lofty columns bearing the figures of as many marine creatures; a White sun fish (khamsín bálighí) for example, which, when it uttered a cry, left not a fish of that kind in the Black Sea, but brought them all to Makedún, where all the people got a good bellyful of them.

The sixth talisman was, that, during all the forty days of Lent, all kinds of fish were thrown ashore by the sea, and caught without any trouble by the people of Rúm (Turkey).

All these talismans having been overthrown by the great earthquake on the night of the prophets birth, the columns which bore them still lie strewed like a pavement along the Seraglio-Point, from the Selímiyyeh Kóshk, to the castle of Sinán Páshá, and are manifest to those who pass along in boats. Though upset they still retain their talismanic virtues, and every year bring many thousand fishes to the shore.

There were also twenty-four columns round Islámból, each bearing a talisman. All could be visited by a man in one day, provided it was a day of fifteen hours: now the longest day at Islámból, from sun-rise to sun-set, is fifteen hours and a half. That city is situated in the middle of the fifth climate, and therefore enjoys excellent air and water.

SECTION VII.

Concerning the Mines within and without the City of Kostantín.

By God’s will there was anciently a great cavern in Islámból, below the Sultán’s mosque (Sultán jámi’-sí), filled with sulphur, nitre, and black powder, from which they drew supplies in time of need. Having, by the decree of heaven, been struck by lightning in the time of Kostantín, or, according to our tradition, at the time of the taking of the city by the conqueror, all the large buildings over the cavern were blown up, and fragments of them scattered in every direction; some may still be seen at Uskudár (Scutari), others at Salájak búruní, and Kází kóï (Chalcedon); one large piece, particularly, called the Kabá-tásh, and lying in the sea before the chismehler tekkiyeh, to the north of the village of Funduk-lí, near Tóp-khánah, was probably thrown there when the city was blown up.

In the neighbourhood of the castle of Kúm-búrghaz, half a days journey from the Seven Towers, to the south of Islámból, a fine white sand is found, in great request among the hour-glass makers and goldsmiths of Islámból and Firengistán (Europe).

Near the privy-garden of Dáúd Páshá, outside of the Adrianople-gate, there are seven stone quarries, which appear to be inexhaustible. It is called the stone of Khizr, because it was pointed out by that prophet for the construction of Ayá Sófiyah.

A kind of soft clay (tín) like electuary (ma’jún), found near the suburb of Abú Iyyúb ansárí, is called tín ansárí; it has a sweet scent like terra sigillata (tiní makhtúm), from the island of Alimání (Jezírehi Alimání, i.e. Lemnos); and it is used for the sigillate earth found at Lemnos; making jugs, a draught from which refreshes like a draught of the water of life.

From a pool (buheïreh) between the suburbs of Iyyúb Sultán and Khás-kóï, divers bring up a kind of black clay, which is excellent for making jugs, cups, plates, and all kinds of earthenware.

The springs of Jendereh-jí, in the delightful promenade (mesíreh-gáh) called Kághid Khánah (Kïahet-haneh, or les eaux douces, i.e. fresh-water springs), are famous all over the world. The root of a kind of lign-aloes (eker) is found there superior to that of Azák (Assov), the city of Kerdeh, or the canal of the castle of Kanizzhah. One of its wonderful properties is, that when a man eats of it it occasions a thousand eructations; it fattens tortoises marvellously, and the Franks of Ghalatah come and catch them, and use them in all their medicines with great advantage.

At Sárí Yár, north of Kághid Kháneh, a kind of fermented clay is found, which smells like musk, and is used in making jugs and cups, which are much valued, and offered as presents to the great.

At the village of Sári Yár, near the entrance of the strait of the Black Sea, there is a lofty mountain of yellow-coloured earth, covered with gardens and vineyards up to its summit. On its outside, near to the sea-shore, there is a cavern containing a mine of pure gold, free from any alloy of Hungarian (Ungurús) Búndúkání brass. From the time of the infidels till the reign of Sultán Ahmed, it was an imperial domain, farmed out for one thousand yúk of aspers (loads, each equal to 100,000). The Defterdár, Ekmek-ji-zádeh Ahmed Páshá, closed it, as bringing little into the treasury; it is now, therefore, neglected, but if opened again by the Sultán’s order would be found a very valuable mine.

From this mountain in the valley of Gók-sú, near the castles (hisár) on the Bosphorus, a kind of lime is obtained which is whiter than snow, cotton, or milk, and cannot be matched in the world.

In the same favourite place of resort, the valley of Gók-sú, a kind of red earth is found, of which jugs, plates, and dishes are made; and the doctors say, that pure water drunk out of vessels made of this earth cures the básuri demeví (blood-shot eyes?).

In the mountains near the town of Uskudár (Scutari), is found a kind of fossil whetstone (kayághán), which breaks in large slabs, and is much used for tombstones.

Beneath the palace known by the name of Ghalatah-seráï, above the suburb of Tóp-khánah, is an iron mine, called the mine of old Islámból, and the ore extracted from it is known by that name all over the world. Not a soul in the universe knew any thing of it till Khizr pointed it out, in the time of king Ferendú, for the building of Ayá Sófiyah; and all the ironwork of that edifice, as well as the iron hoops round the column in Táúk-bázár [Forum Theodosii], were made of iron from Eskí Stámból. The mine was worked till the time of Sultán Báyazíd Velí, who was much pleased with the air and water of the place, and often spent some time there; and having been admonished in a dream by the Prophet, founded a hospital and college on the spot; and having finally made it a school for pages of the seraglio, the mine was abandoned. The humble writer of this remembers, in the time of his youth, when ’Osmán the Martyr was on the throne, there was between the lead-magazine (kúrshúnlí makhzen) and Tóp-kapú a manufactory of Damascus blades, made from the iron of this mine, where Mohamed the Conqueror, who established it, had most excellent blades made. I myself have seen Mustafá, the head sword-maker of Sultán Murád IV., and master of little David, working in that manufactory. It was a large building, outside of the walls, on the sea-shore. Afterwards, when Sultán Ibráhím ascended the throne, Kara Mustafá Páshá became a martyr, and every thing was thrown into confusion; this building was turned into a house for the Jews, by ’Alí Aghá, superintendant of the custom-house, and neither the name, nor any trace of the mine or the sword manufactory, are to be found.

The thirteenth mine is that mine of men, the Good City, i.e. Kostantiniyyeh, which is an ocean of men and beautiful women, such as is to be found no where else. It is said, that if a thousand men die and a thousand and one are born, the race is propagated by that one. But Islámból is so vast a city, that if a thousand die in it, the want of them is not felt in such an ocean of men; and it has therefore been called Káni Insán, a mine of men.

SECTION VIII.

Sieges of Constantinople.

In the forty-third year of the Hijreh (A.D. 663), Mo’áviyyah became Commander of the Faithful; and in the course of his reign sent his commander in chief Moslemah, son of ’Abdu-l-malik, at the head of a hundred thousand men of the Syrian army, with two hundred ships, and two hundred transports laden with provisions, ammunition, &c. from the port of Shám-Tarah-bólús (Tripoli in Syria), and trusting in God, first against the island of Máltah, which at that time was Rodós (Rhodes), and of which they made a conquest almost as soon as they disembarked. They next proceeded to the islands of Istánkóï (Cos), Sákiz (Scio), Medellí (Mitylene), Alimániyah (Lemnos), and Bózjah (Tenedos), which were taken in a few days; and they immediately afterwards laid siege to Kostantaniyyeh, having taken four hundred ships in their passage, and intercepted all vessels laden with provisions coming from the White or Black Sea. The infidels soon sued for peace, on condition of paying the annual tribute of a galley laden with money; and the victorious general returned to Arabia with joy and exultation, carrying with him the impure son of that erring king (királ) Herkíl (Heraclius) as a hostage, with treasures to the amount of some millions of piastres.

Second Siege. In the fifty-second year of the Hijrah of the pride of the world (A.D. 671), Ebú Iyyúb Ansárí, the standard-bearer of the Prophet, and ’Abdullah ibn ’Abbás ibn Zeïd, proceeding with some thousands of the illustrious companions of the Prophet, and 50,000 brave men, in two hundred ships, followed by reinforcements under the command of Moslemah, first carried supplies to the warriors of Islám in garrison at Rodós, and then, casting anchor before the Seven Towers and landing their men, laid siege to Islámból by sea and land. Thus, for six months, did this host, which had the fragrance of Paradise, contend day and night with the infidels. By the wise decree of God. Ebú Iyyúb their leader suffered martyrdom in one of these assaults, by an arrow from a cross-bow: but, according to a sure tradition, he was received into mercy (i.e. he died) of a disorder in his bowels.

Third Siege. In the year of the Hijrah 91 (A.D. 710), by order of the khalif Suleïmán, son of ’Abdu-llah of the Bení Ummayyah, his nephew ’Omar ibn ’Abdu-l-’azíz marched by land against Islámból with 87,000 men, who ravaged Ghalatah with fire and sword, and having carried off an immense booty, crossed over into Anátólí (Natolia); and after having laid siege to Sínób, which made its peace at a great price, and Kastemúní, the capture of which likewise it did not please God to make easy to him, he returned to Syria (Shám).

The fourth Siege. In A.H. 97 (A.D. 716), the same khalif again sent his nephew ’Omar ibn ’Abdu-l-’azíz against Islámból, with an army of 120,000 men by land, and 80,000 embarked in three hundred ships at sea. They established their winter-quarters that year in the town of Belkís-Aná, near Aïdinjik (Cyzicus), in the district of Brúsah, and in the following spring they laid siege to Islámból, and reduced the inhabitants to the greatest distress, by laying waste all the surrounding fields and meadows.

The fifth Siege. In the year of the Hijrah——, ’Omar ibn ’Abdu-l-’azíz, having become khalif of Shám (Syria), sent an army of 100,000 men, by land and by sea, against Islámból, and crossing the Strait of the Black Sea at Ghalatah, conquered it, and built the mosque of the lead magazines; and the mosque of the Arabs (’Arab jámi’sí) in that suburb was likewise named from its having been built by him. Having erected a lofty heaven-aspiring tower at Ghalatah, he called it Medíneto-l Kahr (the City of Oppression). He made peace with the Tekkúr of Islámból on condition that Mohammedans should be allowed to settle in that city, from the Crooked (Egrí) and Adrianople gates, and the hill on which the Suleïmániyyah stands, to that of Zírek-báshí, and from thence by the flour-market (ún-kapání) as far as Iyyúb Ensárí. He built the rose-mosque (Gul-jámi’í) in the market of Mustafá Páshá, erected the court of justice near the Sirkehjí-tekiyeh, and formed a new district of the town at the summer-quarters of Kójah Mustafá Páshá, near the Seven Towers. Another condition on which this unilluminated Tekkúr (emperor) obtained peace, was the annual payment of a tribute (kharáj) of 50,000 pieces of gold. ’Omar ibn ’Abdu-l-’azíz fixed his winter-quarters at Ghalatah for that year, having received the tribute due for three hundred years in consequence of a former treaty, departed, leaving Suleïmán ibn ’Abdu-l Malik governor of Ghalatah, and appointing Moselmah his Grand Vizír. His fleet having met near Rodostò one of two hundred sail, sent by the infidels to succour the Tekkúr, a great battle ensued; and just as the infidels were about to be destroyed, a stormy wind sprung up and drove both fleets on shore, notwithstanding all the cherubims in heaven emulated the zeal of the true believers on earth. The Moslims disembarked, laid waste all the villages round about, carried away more than 3,000 horses, asses, and mules, and 23,000 prisoners. The treasures taken from the ships which were sunk, were so great, that God only knows their amount; and the number of the dust-licking infidels passed over the edge of the sword such that their bones lie piled up in heaps in a well known valley, called even now ‘Omar Kírdúghí Jórdú, i.e. ‘the camp broken up by ‘Omar.’ After gaining another signal victory by sea and land, he returned into Syria (Shám).

The sixth Siege. In the year of the hijrah 160 (A.D. 777) Merván ibnu-l Hakem besieged Islámból with an army of 150,000 Moslims and a fleet of a thousand ships during six months, added three new districts and built a mosque in the Mahommedan part of the city, and compelled Mesendún, son of Herakíl (Heraclius), to pay a yearly tribute of 500,000 golden tekyánúses, (i.e. coins called Decianus).

The seventh Siege. Seventy-four years after the peace made with Merván, in the year of the hijrah 239 (A.D. 853-4), after the conquest of Malatíyyah, Islámból was pillaged by the khalif Yahyá son of ’Ali, who returned to Kharrán (Charrhæ) after having smote 20,000 infidels with the edge of the sword.

The eighth Siege. Sixteen years afterwards, A.H. 255 (A.D. 869), I’liyá (Elias) son of Herakíl being king (királ) of Islámból, Harúnu-r-rashíd marched from his paradisiacal abode at the head of 50,000 troops; but finding it difficult to effect the conquest of the city, he made peace on condition of receiving as much ground within the walls as a bulls hide would cover. He therefore cut the hide into strips, so as to enclose space enough in the district of Kójah Mustafá Páshá for building a strong castle, and he fixed the annual tribute at 50,000 fulúrí (florins). He then returned to Baghdád, having levied the tribute (kharáj) due for the last ten years.

About this time the infidels, taking advantage of the dissensions which prevailed among the Muselmáns respecting the khalífat, massacred all those established in Islámból and Ghalatah, not however without great loss on their own side, the king and royal family being all slain; in consequence of which Ghirándó Mihál (Grando Michael), a grandson of Herakíl who had come from Firengistán, was made king; and on that very day Seyyid Bábá Ja’fer, one of the descendants of Imám Hoseïn, and Sheïkh Maksúd, one of the followers of Veïsu-l-Karní, sent by Hárúnu-r-rashíd as ambassadors, entered Islámból. They were attended by three hundred fakírs and three hundred followers, and were received by the new king with innumerable honours. The Sheïkh asked and obtained permission to bury the remains of the many thousand martyrs who had been slain in the late massacre, which lasted seven days and seven nights. He immediately set to work, and with the aid of his own three hundred fakírs and Bábá Ja’fer’s three hundred followers, buried those many thousand martyrs in the places where they had died. In the ancient burying ground behind the arsenal, there are large caverns and ancient vaults, where, from the time of ’Omar ibn ’Abdu-l-’azíz, some thousand companions (of the Prophet) had been buried. To that place Sheïkh Maksúd carried some thousand bodies of these martyrs, and buried them there, where, on a hewn stone, there is written in large and legible characters, so that it may be easily read, this inscription, said to be by the Sheïkh’s own blessed hand:

These are the men who came and went!

In this frail world (dári fenà) what have they done?

They came and went, what have they done?

At last to th’ endless world (dári bakà) they’re gone.

It is to this day celebrated throughout the world as an extraordinary inscription, and is visited by travellers from Rúm (Greece), ’Arab (Arabia), and ’Ajem (Persia). Some of them, who, in the expectation of finding hidden treasures, began to work at these ancient buildings with pickaxes like Ferhád’s, perished in the attempt, and were also buried there. Some holy men make pilgrimages to this place barefoot on Friday nights, and recite the chapter entitled Tekásur (Korán, chap. 102); for many thousands of illustrious companions (of the Prophet) Mohájirín, (who followed him in his flight), and Ansárs (auxiliaries) are buried in this place. It has been also attested by some thousands of the pious, that this burial ground has been seen some thousands of times covered with lights on the holy night of Alkadr (i.e. sixth of Ramazán).

In short, Seyyid Bábá Ja’fer, Hárúnu-r rashíd’s ambassador, having been enraged, and taking offence at his not having been well received by the king Ghirándó Míhál, reproached him bitterly, and suffered martyrdom by poison in consequence of it. He was buried by Sheïkh Maksúd, who received an order to that effect, in a place within the prison of the infidels, where, to this day, his name is insulted by all the unbelieving malefactors, debtors, murderers, &c. imprisoned there. But when (God be praised!) Islámból was taken, the prison having likewise been captured, the grave of Seyyid Ja’fer Bábá Sultán, in the tower of the prison [the Bagno], became a place of pilgrimage, which is visited by those who have been released from prison, and call down blessings in opposition to the curses of the unbelievers.

The ninth Siege. Three years after that great event related above, Hárúnu-r-rashíd marched from Baghdád with an immense army, to require the blood of the faithful from the infidels of Rúm (Asia Minor and Greece), and having reached Malatiyyah, which was conquered by Ja’fer Ghází, surnamed Seyyid Battál, that hero led the vanguard of the army into Rúm; and Hárún himself brought up the rear with reinforcements. Having taken possession of the straits, they blockaded the city, cut off all its supplies, gave no quarter, slew 300,000 infidels, took 70,000 prisoners, and made an immense booty, which they sent to Haleb (Aleppo) and Iskenderún, and then returned laden with spoils to Baghdád. Yaghfúr (void of light), the king at that time, was taken prisoner and carried before Hárún, who gave him no quarter, but ordered him to be hung in the belfry of Ayá Sófiyyah (Sancta Sophia). Having been from my infancy desirous of seeing the world, and not remaining in ignorance, I learned the Greek and Latin languages of my friend Simyún (Simeon) the goldsmith, to whom I explained the Persian glossary of Sháhidí, and he gave me lessons in the Aleksanderah (Alexandra), i.e. the History of Alexander. He also read to me the history of Yanván, from which these extracts are taken. But after the race of the Cæsars (Kayásirah) became extinct in Kanátúr, Kostantiniyyah fell into the hands of various princes, till the house of ’Osmán arose in A.H. 699 (A.D. 1300), and, at the suggestion of ’Aláu-d-dín the Seljúkí, first turned its attention to the conquest of that city.

SECTION IX.

Concerning the Sieges of Constantinople by the Ottoman Emperors.

The first portion of the descendants of Jafeth which set its foot in the country of Rúm (Asia Minor) was the house of the Seljúkians, who, in alliance with the Dánishmendian Emírs, wrested, in A.H. 476 (A.D. 1083), the provinces of Malatiyyah, Kaïsariyyah, ’Aláiyyah, Karamán, and Kóniyah from the hand of the Greek emperors (Kaïsari Rúm Yúnániyán). They first came from Máveráu-n-nehr (Transoxiana). On the extinction of the Seljúkian dynasty, A.H. 600 (A.D. 1204), Suleïmán-sháh, one of the begs (lords) of the town of Máhán in Túrán, and his son Ertoghrul, came into Rúm, to the court of Sultán ’Aláu-d-dín. The latter having been set on his feet as a man (er-toghrílúb), and made a beg by that prince, made many brilliant conquests, and, at the death of ’Aláu-d-dín, was elected sovereign in his stead, by all the great men (a’yán) of the country. He died at the town of Sukúdjuk, and was succeeded by his son ’Osmán, who was the first emperor (pádisháh) of that race. He resided at ’Osmánjik, from whence the dazzling beams of the Mohammedan faith shed their light over Anátólí, Germiyán, and Karamán. In the time of his son and successor, the victorious Órkhán, seventy-seven heroes, friends of God (evliyáu-llah, i.e. saints) fought under the banners of the Prophet.

It was in his reign, that the holy (velí) Hájí Begtásh, who had been in Khorasán, one of the followers of our great ancestor, that Túrk of Túrks, Khójah Ahmed Yaseví, came over to his camp with three hundred devout (sáhibi sejjádeh) fakírs carrying drums and standards, and, as soon as they had met Órkhán, Brúsah was taken. From thence he proceeded to the conquest of Constantaniyyeh. His son, Suleïmán Beg, joined by the permission and advice of Begtásh and seventy great saints (evliyà), with forty brave men, such as Karah Mursal, Karah Kójah, Karah Yalavà, Karah Bíghà, Karah Síghlah, in short forty heroes (bahádur) called Karah (black), crossed over the sea on rafts, and set foot on the soil of Rúm, shouting Bismillah, the Mohammedan cry of war. Having laid waste the country on all sides of the city, they conquered, on a Friday, the castle of Ip-salà (it is called Ip-salà by a blunder for Ibtidà salà, i.e. the commencement prayer), and having offered up the Fridays prayer there, they pushed on to the gates of Adrianople, taking Gelíbólí (Galipoli), Tekir-tághí (Rodosto), and Silivrì (Selymbria) in their way, and returned victorious, laden with spoils and captives, after an absence of seven days, to Kapú-tághí on the Asiatic shore, from whence they marched with their booty into Brúsah. The brain of the whole army of Islám being thus filled with sweetness, the shores of Rúm were many times invaded, all the neighbouring country was laid waste, nor were the infidels (káfirs) able to make any resistance; while the Moslim heroes found means of raising a noble progeny by being tied with the knot of matrimony to the beautiful virgins whom they carried off. Sultán Murád I., who succeeded Órkhán, following the advice formerly given by Aláu-d-dín Sultán and Hájí Begtásh, made himself master of the country round Kostantaniyyeh before he attempted the conquest of the city itself. He therefore first took Edreneh (Adrianople), and filled it with followers of Mohammed coming from Anátólí, while the infidels could not advance a step beyond Islámból. However, they contrived to assemble an army of 700,000 men in the plain of Kós-óvà (Cossova), near the castle of Vechteren in Rúm-ílí (Romelia), where, by the decree of the Creator of the world, they were all put to the sword by the victorious Khudávendikár (Murád); but while walking over the dead bodies in the field of battle, praising God, and surveying the corpses of the infidels doomed to hell (dúzakh), he was slain by a knife from the hand of one Velashko, who lay among the slain. The assassin was instantly cut to pieces, and Murád’s son, Yildirim Báyazíd Khán, mounted the throne. In order to avenge his father’s death, he fell like a thunderbolt on Káfiristán (the land of the unbelievers), slew multitudes of them, and began the tenth siege of Kostantaniyyeh.

Yildirim Báyazíd wisely made Edreneh (Adrianople) the second seat of empire, and besieged Islámból during seven months with an army of a hundred thousand men, till the infidels cried out that they were ready to make peace on his own terms, offering to pay a yearly tribute (kharáj) of 200,000 pieces of gold. Dissatisfied with this proposal, he demanded that the Mohammedans (ummeti Mohammed) should occupy, as of old in the days of ’Omar ibn ’Abdu-l-’azíz, and Hárúnu-r-Rashíd, one half of Islámból and Ghalatah, and have the tithe of all the gardens and vineyards outside of the city. The Tekkúr king (i.e. the Emperor) was compelled of necessity to accept these terms, and twenty thousand Musulmáns having been introduced into the town, were established within their former boundaries. The Gul jámi’í, within the Jebálí kapú-sí, was purified with rose-water from all the pollutions of the infidels, whence it received its name of Gul-jámi’í (i.e. Rose mosque). A court of justice was established in the Sirkehjí Tekiyeh in that neighbourhood; Ghalatah was garrisoned with six thousand men, and half of it, as far as the tower, given up to the Mohammedans. Having in this manner conquered one half of Islámból, Báyazíd returned victorious to Edreneh. Soon afterwards Tímúr Leng issuing from the land of Írán with thirty-seven kings at his stirrup, claimed the same submission from Báyazíd, who, with the spirit and courage of an emperor, refused to comply. Tímúr, therefore, advanced and encountered him with a countless army. Twelve thousand men of the Tátár light-horse (eshkinjí), and some thousands of foot soldiers, who, by the bad counsels of the vazír, had received no pay, went over to the enemy; notwithstanding which Báyazíd, urged on by his zeal, pressed forwards with his small force, mounted on a sorry colt, and having entered the throng of Tímúr’s army, laid about him with his sword on all sides, so as to pile the Tátárs in heaps all around him. At last, by God’s will, his horse that had never seen any action fell under him, and he, not being able to rise again before the Tátárs rushed upon him, was taken prisoner, and carried into Tímúr’s presence. Tímúr arose when he was brought in, and treated him with great respect. They then sat down together on the same carpet (sejjádeh) to eat honey and yóghúrt (clotted cream). While thus conversing together, “I thank God,” said Tímúr, “for having delivered thee into my hand, and enabled me to eat and discourse with thee on the same table; but if I had fallen into thy hands, what wouldst thou have done?” Yildirim, from the openness of his heart, came to the point at once, and said, “By heaven! if thou hadst fallen into my hand, I would have shut thee up in an iron cage, and would never have taken thee out of it till the day of thy death!” “What thou lovest in thy heart, I love in mine,” replied Tímúr, and ordering an iron cage to be brought forthwith, shut Báyazíd up in it, according to the wish he had himself expressed. Tímúr then set out on his return, and left the field open for Chelebí Sultán Mohammed to succeed his father Yildirim. He immediately pursued the conqueror with 70,000 men, and overtaking him at Tashák-óvá-sí, smote his army with such a Mohammedan cleaver, that his own men sheltered themselves from the heat of the sun under awnings made of the hides of the slain, whence that plain received the ludicrous name by which it is still known. But, by God’s will, Yildirim died that very night of a burning fever, in the cage in which he was confined. His son Mohammed Chelebí, eager to avenge his father, continued to drive Tímúr forwards, till he reached the castle of Tókát, where he left him closely besieged. He then returned victorious, carrying the illustrious corpse of his father to Brúsah, where it was buried in an oratory in the court before his own mosque. His brothers ’Ísá and Músá disputed his right to the empire; but Mohammed, supported by the people of Rúm, was proclaimed khalífah at Edreneh (Adrianople), where he remained and finished the mosque begun by his father. On hearing of these contentions for the empire, the king (tekkúr) of Islámból danced for joy. He sent round cryers to make proclamation that, on pain of death, not a Muselmán should remain in the city of Kostantín, allowing only a single day for their removal: and he destroyed a great number of them in their flight to Tekirtágh (Rodostó) and Edreneh (Adrianople). The empire, after the demise of Chelebí Mohammed, was held first by Murád II., and then by Mohammed (II.) the conqueror, who during his father’s lifetime was governor (hákim) of Maghnísá (Magnesia), and spent his time there in studying history, and in conversing with those excellent men ’Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, Karah-Shemsu-d-dín, and Sívásí, from whom he acquired a perfect knowledge of the commentaries on the Korán and the sacred traditions (hadís). While he was at Maghnísá, having heard that the infidels from Fránsah (France) had landed at ’Akkah (Acri), the port of Jerusalem, on the shore of the White Sea, and in the dominions of Keláún, Sultán of Egypt, and taken possession of ’Askelán and other towns, from which they had carried off much plunder and many prisoners to their own country, he was so much grieved at the thoughts of thousands of Muselmáns being carried into captivity, that he shed tears. “Weep not, my Emperor,” said Ak-shemsu-d-dín, “for on the day that thou shalt conquer Islámból, thou shalt eat of the spoils and sweetmeats taken by the unbelievers from the castle of ’Akkah: but remember on that day to be to the faithful an acceptable judge as well as victor (kúzí ve-ghází rází), doing justice to all the victorious Moslims.” At the same time taking off the shawl twisted round his Turban, he placed it on Mohammed’s head, and announced the glad tidings of his being the future conqueror of Islámból. They then read the noble traditions (hadís) of what the Prophet foretold relative to Islámból, and observed that he was the person to whom these traditions applied. Mohammed on this, covering his head with Ak-Shemsu-d-din’s turban (’urf), said: “Affairs are retrieved in their season!” and, recommending all his affairs to the bounty of the Creator, returned to his studies.

On the death of his father Murád II., ambassadors to congratulate him were sent by all monarchs, except Uzún Hasan, Prince (Sháh) of Azerbáïján, of the family of Karah Koyúnlí; against him, therefore, he first turned his arms, and defeated him in the field of Terján.

Account of the Rise of Mohammed II., the Father of Victory.

He mounted the throne on Thursday the 16th Moharrem 855 (A.D. 1451), at the age of twenty-one years. My great grandfather, then his standard-bearer, was with him at the conquest of Islámból. He purchased with the money arising from his share of the booty, the houses within the U’n kapání, on the site of the mosque of Sághirjílar, which he built after the conquest of the city by Mohammed II., together with a hundred shops settled on the mosque as an endowment (vakf). The house in which I was born was built at the same time, and with money so acquired. The patents (baráts) for the mosques and the shops, however, were made out in the conquerors name, and signed with his cypher (tughrà), the administration of the endowment being vested in our family. From the deeds relative to it now in my hands, I am well acquainted with the dates of all the events of his reign. He was a mighty but bloodthirsty monarch. As soon as he had mounted the throne at Adrianople, he caused Hasan, his younger brother by the same mother, to be strangled, and sent his body to Brúsah, to be interred there beside his father. He conquered many castles in the country round Brúsah, built those called the key of the two seas, on the strait of the White Sea, and two likewise on that of the Black Sea, and levied a tribute on Islámból. According to the peace made by Yildirim, a tithe of the produce of all the vineyards round was to be paid to the Sultán, before any infidel could gather a single grape. After the lapse of three years, some grapes having been gathered by the infidels in violation of this article of the treaty, in the vineyards of the Rúmílí hisár (i.e. the European castle on the canal of Constantinople), a quarrel ensued, in which some men were killed. Mohammed, when this was reported to him, considered it as a breach of the treaty, and immediately laid siege to Islámból, with an army as numerous as the sand of the sea.

SECTION X.

The last Siege of Kostantaniyyeh by Mohammed II. the Conqueror.

In the year of the Hijrah 857 (A.D. 1453), Sultán Mohammed encamped outside of the Adrianople gate, with an immense army of Unitarians (Muvahhedín); and some thousands of troops from Arebistán, who crossed the Strait of Gelíbólí (Gallipoli), and having joined the army of Islám, took up their quarters before the Seven Towers. All the troops from Tokát, Sívás, Erzrúm, Páï-búrt, and the other countries taken from Uzún Hasan, crossed the strait near Islámból, and encamped on the ’Ok-meïdán in sight of the infidels. Trenches, mines, and guns were got ready, and the city was invested by land on all sides; it was only left open by sea. Seventy-seven distinguished and holy men beloved by God (Evliyáu-llah) followed the camp; among them were Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, Karah-Shemsu-d-dín, Sívásí, Mollá Kúrání, Emír Nejárí, Mollá Fenárí, Jubbeh ’Alí, Ansárí-Dedeh, Mollá Púlád, Ayà Dedeh, Khorósí Dedeh, Hatablí Dedeh, and Sheïkh Zindání. The Sultán made a covenant with them, promising that one-half of the city (devlet) should belong to them, and one-half to the Muselmán conquerors; “and I will build,” said he, “for each of you a convent, sepulchral chapel, hospital, school, college, and house of instruction in sacred traditions (Dáru-l-hadís).” The men of learning and piety were then assembled in one place; proclamation was made that all the troops of Islám should renew their ablutions, and offer up a prayer of two inflections. The Mohammedan shout of war (Allah! Allah!) was then thrice uttered, and according to the law of the Prophet, at the moment of their investing the city, Mahmúd Páshá was sent with a letter to the Emperor (Tekkúr) of Constantaniyyeh. When the letter had been read and its contents made known, relying on the strength of the place and the number of his troops, the Emperor proudly sent the ambassador back, saying, “I will neither pay tribute, nor surrender the fortress, nor embrace Islám.” On one side, the troops of Islám surrounded the walls like bees, crying out Bismillah, and beginning the assault with the most ardent zeal; on the other, the besieged, who were twice one hundred thousand crafty devils of polytheists, depended on their towers and battlements by land, and feared no danger by sea, the decrees of fate never entering into their thoughts. They had five hundred pieces of ordnance at Seraglio Point, five hundred at the Lead-magazines (on the Ghalatah-side), and one hundred, like a hedge-hog’s bristles, inside and outside of the Kíz kulleh-sí (Tower of Leander), so that not a bird could fly across the sea without being struck from these three batteries. The priests (pápás), monks, and patriarchs encouraging those polluted hosts to the battle, promised some useless idols, such as Lát and Menát, to each of the infidels. The ’Osmánlús, in the mean time, began to batter the walls, and received reinforcements and provisions; while the Greeks, who were shut out of the canals of Constantinople and the Dardanelles by the castles built there, could obtain none. After the siege had been carried on for ten days, the Sultan assembled his faithful sheiks, saying, “See to what a condition we are reduced! The capture of this fortress will be very difficult, if the defence of it is thus continued from day to day.” Ak-Shemsu-d-dín told him that he must wait for a time, but would infallibly be conqueror: that there was within the city a holy man named Vadúd, and that as long as he lived it could not be taken; but that in fifty days he would die, and then at the appointed hour, minute, and second, the city would be taken. The Sultán therefore ordered Tímúr-tásh Páshá to employ 2,000 soldiers in constructing fifty galleys (kadirghah), in the valley near Kághid kháneh, and some villages were plundered to provide them with planks and other timber for that purpose. Kójah Mustafá Páshá had previously constructed, by the labour of all his Arab troops, fifty galleys and fifty horse-boats (káyik), at a place called Levend-chiftlik, opposite to the Ok-meïdán. The galleys built at Kághid kháneh being also ready on the tenth day, the Sultán went on that day to the Ok-meïdán, with some thousands of chosen men, carrying greased levers and beams to move the said ships. By the command of God, the wind blew very favourably; all sails were unfurled, and amidst the shouts of the Moslims crying Allah! Allah! and joyful discharges of muskets and artillery, a hundred and fifty ships slid down from the Ok-meïdán into the harbour. The terrified Káfirs cried out “What can this be?” and this wonderful sight was the talk of the whole city. The place where these ships were launched is still shown, at the back of the gardens of the arsenal (Ters kháneh), at the stairs of Sháh-kulí within the Ok-meïdán.

The millet (dárú, i.e. sorghum) which was scattered there under the ships (in order to make them slide down more readily) grew, and is to this day growing in that place. All the victorious Moslims went on board armed cap-à-pie, and waited till the ships built by Tímúr-tásh at Kághid kháneh made their appearance near Iyyúb (at the extremity of the harbour), in full sail, with a favourable wind. They soon joined the fleet from Ok-meïdán, amid the discharge of guns and cannons, and shouts of Hóï Hóï! and Allah! Allah! When the Káfirs saw the illustrious fleet filled with victorious Moslims approach, they absolutely lost their senses, and began to manifest their impotence and distress. Their condition was aptly expressed in that text (Kor. II, 18): “They put their fingers in their ears, because of the noise of the thunder, for fear of death!” and they then began to talk of surrendering on the twentieth day. Pressed by famine and the besieging army, the inhabitants deserted through the breaches in the walls, to the Moslims, who, comforted by their desertion, received them well. On that day, the chiefs (báïs) of Karamán, Germiyán, Tekkeh-ílí, Aïdin, and Sáríkhán, arrived with 77,000 well-armed men, and gave fresh life to the hearts of the faithful. Tímúr-tásh having passed over with his fleet to the opposite side, landed his troops on the shore of Iyyúb, where he attacked the gates of Iyyúb and Sárí-Sultán; Mulá Pulád, a saint who knew the scripture by heart and worked miracles, attacked that of Pulád; and Sheikh Fanárí took post at the Fener kapú-sí (the Fanal-gate). The Káfirs built a castle there in one night, which would not now be built in a month, and which is actually standing and occupied. A monk named Petro having fled from that castle with three hundred priests, all turned Moslims, and that gate was called from him Petró kapú-sí. Having by God’s will conquered the newly-built castle that night, he received a standard and the name of Mohammed Petro. Ayà-dedeh was stationed with three hundred Nakshbendí Fakírs before the gate of Ayá, where he fell a martyr (to the faith), and was buried within the walls, at our old court of justice the Tekiyéh (convent) of Sirkehjí; in the same manner, the gate at which Jubbeh ’Alí was posted, was called the Jebálí gate, in memory of him, Jebálí being erroneously written for Jubbeh ’Alí. He was the sheikh (i.e. spiritual guide) of Keláún, Sultán of Egypt, and having come to Brúsah for the purpose of being present at the taking of Islámból, became a disciple of Zeïnu-d-dín Háfí, and was called Jubbeh ’Alí, from his always wearing a jacket (jubbeh) made of horse-cloth; he was afterwards, when Mohammed marched against Islámból, made chief baker (ekmekchí-báshí), and provided, no creature knows how, from one single oven the whole army, consisting of many hundred thousand servants of God, with bread as white as cotton. He did not embark at the Ok-meïdán, but with three hundred Fakírs, disciples of Zeïnu-d-dín Háfí, who, having spread skins upon the sea near the garden of the arsenal, employed themselves in beating their drums and tambours, and singing hymns in honour of the unity (tevhíd) of God. They then, unfurling the standard of Háfí, passed over the sea clearer than the sun, standing on their skins as on a litter, to the terror of the infidels doomed to hell! Jubbeh ’Alí having taken up his from the sea, was posted at the Jebálí gate. After the conquest he voluntarily fell a martyr, and was interred in the court of the Gul-jámi’í (the rose-mosque), where an assemblage of Fakírs afterwards found a retreat from the world. Khorós dedeh was engaged at the Un-kapání gate, which therefore bears his name; and below it, on the left hand as one enters, there is a figure of a cock (khorós). He was a Fakír, and one of the disciples of my ancestor Ahmed Yeseví. He came from Khurasán, when old and sickly, with Hájí Begtásh, in order to be present at the siege of Islámból, and got the nickname of Khorós-dedeh (father cock), from his continually rousing the faithful, by crying out, “Arise, ye forgetful!” Yáúzún Er, who was a very pious man, built within the Un-kapání a mosque in honour of him; it is now in the Sighirjílar chárshu-sí (beast market), and named afterwards the mosque of Yáúzún Er. Khorós-dedeh died sometime afterwards near the gate called after his name, and was buried near the high-road, outside of the Un-kapání gate, beside my ancestor. A conduit for religious ablutions has been erected near it, and is now visited as a place of pilgrimage. ’Alí Yárík, Bey of Ayázmánd, a nephew of Uzún-Hasan, of the Karákoyúnlí family, attacked the Ayázmah gate. He dug a well there for the purpose of renewing his ablutions; hence the gate received the name Ayázmah (Ἁγίασμα) kapú-sí: the water is pure spring-water, though on the edge of the sea. Sheïkh Zindání was a descendant of Sheïkh Bábá Ja’fer, who having come as ambassador in the time of Hárúnu-r-Rashíd, was poisoned by the king (i.e. emperor), and buried within the Zindán kapú-sí (prison-gate). Sheïkh Zindání visited this place, having come from Edirneh (Adrianople) with “the conqueror,” at the head of 3,000 noble Seyyids (descendants of Mohammed), who gave no quarter, soon made the Zindán kapú-sí his castle, and having entered it, made a pilgrimage to his ancestor’s tomb, and laid his own green turban on the place where Bábá Ja’fer’s head rested. He continued for seventy years after the conquest as Turbehdár (warden of the sepulchre) and built a convent there. The Emperor, as he had made a prison in that place, called it Zindán kapú-sí (the Bagnio), and it was conquered by Zindání. The Sheïkh having appointed in his stead a Sayyid of the same pure race, to take charge of the tomb of Ja’fer Bábá, accompanied Sultán Báyazíd in his expedition against Kilí (Kilia) and Ak-kirmán, in the year 889 (A.D. 1484). He died at Edirneh (Adrianople), after his return with Báyazíd from those conquests, and on that occasion the Sultán caused all the prisoners in the public prison there to be set at liberty for the good of the Sheïkh’s soul, and erected a chapel (turbeh) over his tomb, outside of the Zindán Kulleh-sí, having attended his funeral in person. His turbeh is now a great place of pilgrimage, and all his children are buried there. It is called the Ziyáret-gáh of ’Abdu-r-ruuf Samadání. The wardens of the tomb of Bábá Ja’fer at Islámból are still members of his family, and their genealogical tree is as follows: ’Abdu-r-ruuf Samadání (otherwise called Sheïkh Zindání) son of Sheïkh Jemálu-d-dín, son of Bint-Emír Sultán, son of Eshrefu-ddín, son of Táju-d-dín, son of the daughter of Seyyid Sikkín (buried near Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, at Túrbahlí Kóï), son of Ja’fer Bábá (buried at Islámból), the son of Mohammed Hanifí, from whom my ancestor Ahmed Yeseví was also descended; our genealogical trees were therefore well known to me.

Kámkár Beg, of Kútáhiyeh, was one of the Germiyán-óghlú (i.e. the children of Germiyán). He, with three thousand young heroes, assailed the Shehíd kapú-sí (martyrs-gate). As it is near Ayá Sófiyah, the Christians assembled there in great multitudes, opened the gate, and sallying forth with great fury, made all their Muselmán assailants martyrs. In the time of Hárúnu-r-rashíd, also, some of the illustrious auxiliaries of the Prophet (ansár) quaffed the cup of martyrdom there, hence it has been named the Martyrs (Shuhúd) gate, though incorrectly called by the vulgar, Jews’ (Juhúd) gate. The gates of the royal palace (Khúnkár seráï) sustained no siege; but the gate near the Seven Towers was attacked by Karamán-óghlú with the new reinforcements. The troops from Tekkehbáï were posted before Silivrí-gate; those from Aïdín, before the new gate (Yení kapú); those from Sárúkhán, before the Cannon-gate (Tóp kapú-sí), where they were slain, and replaced by those from Munteshá. The force from Isfendiyár was ordered to besiege the Adrianople-gate (Edirneh kapú-sí), and that from Hamíd, the Crooked-gate (Egrí kapú). So that Islámból was besieged on two sides, and nothing but the Kúm kapú (Sand-gate) on the sea-shore, and the wall from the Seven Towers to Seraglio-Point, remained free from attack. At the Seven Towers, the poet Ahmed Páshá, disregarding the fire of the infidels made several breaches. At the Silivrí-gate, Haïder Páshá’s fire gave not a moments respite to the infidels. At the new gate (Yení kapú), Mahmúd Páshá, commander of the troops from Aïdín, stormed the wall which he had battered three times without success. The commander at the Tóp kapú-sí was Nishání, also called Karamání Mohammed Páshá, a disciple of Jellálu-d-dín Rúmí. He had given devilish (khabelí) proofs of his valour in the war against Uzún Hasan. While he stood at the Cannon-gate, not a cannon could the Káfirs discharge. At the Edirneh-gate (Adrianople), the commander was Sa’dí Páshá, who having dwelt along with Jem-Sháh in Firengistán, had learned many thousand military arts. Being united heart and soul with the valiant men from Isfendiyár stationed at that gate, they vied with him in their heroic deeds, remembering the prophetic tradition that says “We shall be the conquerors of Kostantaniyyeh” (Constantinople). Seven places are yet shewn near that gate where they battered down the wall. Hersek-Oghlú Ahmed Páshá had the command at the Crooked-gate (Egrí-kapú), where by many straight-forward blows he sidled himself into the midst of the infidels till he reduced them all to a mummy.

In this way Kostantaniyyeh had been besieged for twenty days, without any signs of its being conquered. The Moslem warriors, the seventy Unitarians, and three thousand learned ’Ulemás, favourites of God (Evliyá-llah), masters of the decrees of the four orthodox sects, began to be afflicted by the length of the siege, and with one accord offered up their prayers to the Creator for his aid, when suddenly there was darkness over Islámból, with thunder and lightning; a fire was seen to ascend to the vault of heaven from the Atmeïdán; the strongest buildings flew into the air, and were scattered over sea and land. On that day three thousand infidels fled from the city, through alarm and terror. Some were honoured by the profession of Islám, and admitted into the emperors service; others fled to different countries; but the rest, who would not abandon the faith of the Messiah, set to work to repair the breaches, and continued firm in their resistance. They were much pressed, however, by want of food and ammunition.

On the thirtieth day of the siege, Sultán Mohammed having placed the ’Urf (i.e. the judicial turban) on his head, and sky-coloured boots on his feet, mounted a mule which might rival Duldul (Mahomet’s steed), made the round of the walls, and distributed largesses among his troops. He then passed over with many thousand men from Iyyúb to Kághid khánah, and crossing the streams of Alí Beg Kóï and Kághid Khánah came to the place called Levend-chiftlik, where forty ships (firkatah) had also been built. These, like the former, they moved on rollers to the Ok-meïdán, and launched them at the Sháh-kúlí stairs into the sea, filled with some thousand scarlet scull-capped Arabs, burning as brandy, and sharp as hawks.

SECTION XI.

There appeared off Seraglio Point ten large admirals’ ships and ten frigates, completely armed and equipped, with the cross-bearing ensign flying, drums beating, and music playing; and casting anchor there, they fired their guns with indescribable demonstrations of joy, while the Moslims advanced from the Ok-meïdán in two hundred boats and skiffs, embarked on board their own vessels, rushed on these ten ships like bees swarming upon a hive, and enthralled them, head and stern, with their ropes like a spiders web. The infidels, supposing that they were only come on a parley, stood quietly without stretching out a hand against them. The Moslims, in the mean time, shouting “Allah! Allah!” began to tie their hands behind their backs, and to plunder their ships; when the infidels, speaking in their own language, said “Chi parlai,” that is to say, “What do you say?” The Káfirs discovered by the answer who they were, and cried out, “These Turks have entered our ships like a plague, we can make no resistance.” On entering the harbour they had fired all their guns as signals of joy, and were now so crowded together that they could not use their arms, they were therefore all taken. The infidels within the town, seeing this sad event, those who were coming to succour them having been thus taken, tore their hair and beards, and began a heavy fire from the batteries at Seraglio Point, the Lead Magazines at Ghalatah, and the Kíz Kulleh-sí (Tower of Leánder). The undaunted Moslims, however, in spite of the enemy’s batteries, lowered the cross-bearing flag on the twenty ships which they had taken, put all the prisoners on board of their own vessels, and came to an anchor before the garden of the arsenal, firing their guns repeatedly from joy and exultation. The serden-gechdí (i.e. mad caps) immediately disembarking from the vessels, brought the glad tidings to the Sultán and Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, in the garden of the arsenal; when the latter, turning to Mohammed, said: “When your majesty, being then a prince at Maghnísá, heard of the taking of ’Akkà, Saïdá, and Berût (Acrí, Sidon, and Beïrút) in Egypt, by the infidels, and grieved at the thoughts of what the captives, women, and children must suffer, I comforted you by saying, that when you conquered Islámból you would eat of the sweetmeats taken in the plunder of ’Akkà. Lo! those sweetmeats are now presented to you, and my prophetic prayer, that the city might be conquered on the fiftieth day, has been answered!” There were found by the Musulmáns on board the twenty ships, three thousand purses of coins (fulúrí) of Tekiyánús (Decianus), one thousand loads of pure gold, two thousand loads of silver, eight thousand prisoners, twenty captains of ships, a French princess (a kings daughter, a yet unexpanded blossom), a thousand Muselmán damsels, brilliant as the sun, noble and ignoble, and some thousand-times a hundred thousand warlike stores; all of which the Sultán confided to the care of Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, while he himself was entirely engaged in continuing the siege.

The complete account of the affair is this: Kostantín, the late King of Islámból, being betrothed to a daughter of the King of Fránsah, the latter, in order to send her with an escort worthy of her rank, equipped a fleet of six hundred ships, and sent them to ravage the coasts of Arabia (’Arabistán). In that unhappy year they had plundered ’Akkah, Saïdah, Berút, Tarábulus (Tripoli), Ghazzah, and Ramlah, as far as the land of Hásán (Haúrán?), and carried off more than two thousand Húrí-like damsels from ’Arabistán, with spoils to the amount of millions. Of this fleet, ten galeons and ten frigates were dispatched to carry the Princess to Islámbúl. When they reached the straits of the White Sea (the Dardanelles), they discovered that the Túrks had built castles there; but these accursed fellows, by disguising themselves, taking advantage of a fresh southerly breeze, and sending forwards five empty ships to receive the fire from the castles, in two hours got twenty miles beyond them. Having by this stratagem reached Islámból, they were taken, thank God! as has been related. This French princess afterwards gave birth to Yildirím Báyazíd; but other historians tell the story differently, and say that she was taken by the father of Mohammed the Conqueror, and gave birth to him, but he was in truth the son of ’Alímeh Khánum, the daughter of Isfendiyár Oghlú. The correctness of the first account maybe proved thus: My father, who died an old man, was with Sultán Suleïmán at the sieges of Rhodes, Belgrade, and Sigetvár, where that prince died. He used to converse much with men advanced in years: among his most intimate friends there was one who was grey-headed and infirm, but more eloquent than Amrïo-l-kaïs or Abú-l-ma’álí. He was chief secretary to the corps of Janissaries, and his name was Sú-Kemerlí Kójah Mustafà Chelebí. This gentleman was certainly related to this daughter of the King of Fránsah, from whom he continually received presents; and I remember that when I was a boy he gave me some curious pictures which had been given to him by her. During the siege of Sigetvár, before the death of Suleïmán was known to the army, the silihdár (sword-bearer) Kúzú ’Alí Aghá, by the desire of the Grand Vizír Sokól-lí Mohammed Páshá, assembled a council of war, at which the corpse of the Sultán was seated on his throne, and his hands were moved [by some one concealed] behind his ample robe (khil’ah). To this council all the vizírs, vakíls, and senior officers of the army were summoned. Among them were the rikábdár (stirrup-holder) Julábí Aghá, the metbakh emíní (clerk of the kitchen) ’Abdí Efendí, my father, and the abovementioned Sú-kemerli Kójáh Mustafá. He was at that time so old, that when he accompanied the army he was always carried about in a litter (takhti-reván). He had been one of the disciples of the great Muftí Kemál Páshá-zádeh, and was deeply read in divinity and history. Being one of the servants of Kemál Páshá-zádeh, “I was,” he used to say, “when a youth of twenty-five years of age, present at the conquest of Cairo by Sultán Selím I.” A.H. 923 (A.D. 1517); and the writer of these pages was lost in astonishment when he heard him give an account of the great battles of Merj Dábik and Kákún, of Sultán Ghaúrí’s quaffing the cup of destiny, of his son Mohammed’s being deposed by the soldiery on account of his youth, of Túmán-Báï’s succeeding him, of his continued war and twenty-three battles with Selím, till at length Caïro was taken. He was a most faithful man, and one whose word could be taken with perfect security; and having heard him relate the story of the abovementioned French princess from beginning to end, I write it down here.

An Explanation of the Relationship between the House of ’Osmán and the King of France.

Sú-Kemer-lí Mustafá Chelebí gave this narrative: “My father was the son of a King of France, named——. When the treaty had been made by which he engaged to give his daughter (my father’s sister) to the Tekkúr (the Emperor of Constantinople), a fleet of six hundred vessels was dispatched to ravage the coasts near the castle of ’Akkah, in order to furnish her with a dowry. It returned home laden with an immense booty, and a vast number of captives, male and female, and having reached Párisah, the ancient capital of our country, great rejoicings were made. Among the female captives there was a young Seyyideh (i.e. one of the prophetic race), who was given by the King of France to my father, and from whom I was born. When I was three years old, the king my grandfather sent my father with his sister, and vast treasures, to Islámból, and having been captured at Seraglio Point, we were delivered up to Sultán Mohammed, in the garden of the arsenal. After the city was taken, my father was honoured by admission into Islám (the Mohammedan faith), having been instructed by Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, and all the victorious Moslims having reverently presented his sister the princess to the Sultán, she was also instructed in Islám by the same holy man, but refused to embrace it. The Sultán upon this said, “We will give her an excellent education,” and did not trouble himself to insist much on that point. I was then five years old, and being taught the doctrines of Islám by Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, received the honour of Islámism (God be praised!) without any hesitation. My father was made one of the kapújí-báshís (lord-chamberlains), and I was brought up in the seráï kháss (i.e. the Grand Seignor’s palace) by my aunt, my father’s sister. Mohammed Khán having afterwards formed a close attachment for my aunt, she became the mother of Sultán Báyazíd (II) Velí, and the princes Jem and Núru-d-dín.” “When my aunt,” he added, “died, as she had never embraced Islám, Sultán Mohammed II. caused a small sepulchre (kubbeh) to be erected beside the sepulchral chapel (turbeh) which he had built for himself, and there she was buried. I myself have often, at morning-prayer, observed that the readers appointed to read lessons from the Korán [in these turbehs] turned their faces towards the bodies of the defunct buried in the other tombs while reading the lessons, but that they all turned their backs upon the coffin of this lady, of whom it was so doubtful whether she departed in the faith of Islám. I have also frequently seen Franks of the Fránsah tribe (i.e. French), come by stealth and give a few aspers to the turbeh-dárs (tomb-keepers) to open this chapel for them, as its gate is always kept shut. So that there can be no doubt, according to the account given by Srí Kemer-lí Mustafá Chebebí, that a daughter of the King of France became the wife (khátún) of Mohammed the Conqueror (Abú-l Fat-h), and the mother of Sultán Báyazíd.”

An Account of the heroic Deeds and Misfortunes of Jem-Sháh, son of the Emperor Mohammed Abú-l Fat-h (the Conqueror).

When Báyazíd Velí was khalífah, his brother Jem-Sháh (these two being princes of a high spirit) contended with him for the possession of this foul world, and having been worsted in a great battle on the plains of Karamán, fled to Kalávún Sultán of Egypt. From thence as he was going on a pilgrimage to Meccah, he was driven by the buffetting of the sea on the shores of Yemen and ’Aden, whence he visited the tomb of Veïso-l Karní, performed the pilgrimage, and travelling through Hijáz, returned to Egypt, from which country he went by sea to Rhodes and Malta, and from thence to France to visit his grandmother (the Queen of France), one of the most exalted sovereigns of that time, accompanied by 300 Muselmán followers: he spent his time like a prince, in hunting and all sorts of enjoyment. One of his most favoured companions and counsellors was his defterdár (secretary) Sivrí Hisárí; another was ’Ashik-Haïder. Seventeen sons of báns (princes) stood before him [as slaves] with their hands crossed upon their breasts [ready to receive and execute his orders]. He was always followed by this suite in all his travels through Káfiristán (the land of the infidels). He composed some thousand penj-beïts mukhammases, and musaddeses (odes), together with kásáyids (elegies), which form a díván (collection of poems), praised by all the world.

A Stanza by Jem-Sháh.

Bird of my soul, be patient of thy cage,

This body, lo! how fast it wastes with age.

The tinkling bells already do I hear

Proclaim the caravans departure near.

Soon shall it reach the land of nothingness,

And thee, from fleshy bonds delivered, bless.

In this kind of elegies he was an incomparable poet. Sultán Báyazíd at length sent an ambassador to the King of France and claimed Jem-Sháh. On this the ill-complexioned Frank caused a sallow-faced fellow to cut his throat while shaving him with a poisoned razor. The corpse of Jem, together with his property, amongst which was an enchanted cup, which became brimful as soon as delivered empty into the cup-bearers hand, a white parrot, a chess-playing monkey, and some thousands of splendid books, were delivered up to Sa’dí Chelebí (Sivrí Hisárí) and Haïder Chelebí, that they might be conveyed to the Sultán. Jem’s Sa’dí [i.e. Sivrí Hisárí], being a learned and acute man, first dyed the parrot black, and taught him to say, “Verily we belong to God, and to Him shall we return! Long live the Emperor!” He then returned to him with the remains of his master, and delivered over his property to the imperial treasury. But when Báyazíd asked “where is the white parrot?” the bird immediately repeated the above-mentioned text, and added: “Sire, Jem-Sháh having entered into the mercy of his Lord, I have put off the attire of the angel clad in white, and clothed myself in the black of mourning weeds.”—“How!” said the Sultán, addressing himself to Sivrí Hisárí, “did they kill my brother Jem?” “By Heaven! O Emperor!” replied he, “though he indulged in wine, yet he never drank it but out of that enchanted cup, nor did he ever mingle with the infidels, but spent all his time in composing poetry; so by God’s will there was a certain barber named Yán Oghlí (John’s son), who shaved him with a poisoned razor, which made his face and eyes swell, and he was suffocated.” Báyazíd ordered the remains of Jem to be buried at Brúsah, beside his grandfather Murád II. While they were digging the grave there was such a thunder-clap and tumult in the sepulchral chapel, that all who were present fled, but not a soul of them was able to pass its threshold till ten days had passed, when this having been represented to the Sultán, the corpse of Jem was buried by his order in his own mausoleum, near to that of his grandfather. Prince Jem Sháh died in A.H. 900, after having spent eleven years in travelling through Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and in Firengistán, through Spain and France, and having escaped from his brother’s den, and drunk of the cup of Jem, he at last was intoxicated by drinking of the cup of Fate. According to the French account, however, another person was killed by the poisoned razor, and his corpse was sent to Rúm (Turkey) instead of the remains of Jem, who in fact became King of France, and was the forefather of the present sovereign of that country. On enquiring into this report, and hearing what had happened at the tomb, viz. that Murád would not allow the corpse to be buried in his mausoleum, he ordered it to be interred elsewhere. After the taking of Uïvár (Raab) in the year 1073 (A.D. 1662-3), Mohammed Páshá was sent as ambassador the following year, 1074 (1663-4), into Germany (Alámán Díarí), in order to conclude a peace with the emperor of that country (Nemseh-Chásárí): having accompanied him I spent three years in visiting, under the protection of a passport (pátentah) written by him, the seven kingdoms of Káfirístán. Having set foot on the land of Dúnkárkeïn (Dunkirk), situated on the shore of the ocean which separates the eastern side of the New World from France, I passed the Ramazán of the year 1075 (March 1665) there, and having an acquaintance with some well-informed priests (pápáslar), I asked them about the history of Jem-Sháh. They answered, that when the order came from the ’Osmánlí (Sultán) to kill Jem, the French king spared him out of pity, as being a relation to the ’Osmánlí (family) and his own sister’s son, and that having caused another person who resembled Jem to be poisoned, they sent his corpse to Islámból, saying it was that of Jem: that having been afterwards made king of the country on the borders of France (tísh Fránsah) at the time of the conquest of Egypt by Sultán Selím, he sent him presents with letters of congratulation on his victory. They also confirmed the account of the near relationship between the House of ’Osmán and the Kings of France through the mother of Sultán Báyazíd and the progeny of King Jem. He is buried, they added, in a mausoleum (kubbah) in a garden like Irem, outside of the city of Paris, where all the Musulmáns his companions and slaves have been entombed. It is on account of this relationship between the house of ’Osmán and the French kings, that when the foreign ambassadors are assembled in the díván the Frank ambassadors stand below, because their sovereigns are not Moslems; but the French is placed above the Persian ambassador, below whom the German envoy is seated, so that the ambassador from Persia has an infidel on each side. Murád IV., conqueror of Baghdád, altered this regulation, and gave precedence to the French ambassador over all others, and the Russian (Moskov) then taking the right hand of the Persian; an arrangement which offended the German ambassador, but he was obliged to acquiesce in it. This distinguished honour was granted to France because a French princess was the mother of Sultán Báyazíd.

Let us now return from this digression to the siege of the castle of Kostantín. Sultán Mohammed Khán having taken the daughter of the King of France out of the booty of the captured fleet, and by the advice of the captors, placed the rest in the hands of Ak-Shémsu-d-dín to be divided among the army, continued to encourage the besiegers. At length the fiftieth day came. It was manifest that all was terror and confusion within the city, and these graceless Christian infidels planting a white flag on the ramparts, cried out, “Quarter, O chosen House of ’Osmán! we will deliver up the city.” A respite of one day was therefore given to all the unbelievers, to go by land or sea to any country that they would. The Sultán then having the pontifical turban on his head, and sky-blue boots on his feet, mounted on a mule, and bearing the sword of Mohammed in his hand, marched in at the head of 70,000 or 80,000 Muselmán heroes, crying out, “Halt not, conquerors! God be praised! Ye are the vanquishers of Kostantaniyyeh!” He led them directly to the palace of Constantine (Takfúr Seráï), where he found some thousands of infidels assembled and prepared to defend it resolutely. A great battle ensued, and in that contest Kostantín, the king, was slain, and buried with the rest of the faithless (káfirs) in the Water Monastery (Súlú Menastir). The treasures in the king’s palace were so great that God only knows their amount. They were amassed by this Kostantín, who was a merchant, and as rapacious as a griffin (’anká), and had rebuilt Islámbúl the ninth time. Mohammed proceeded to the church of Ayá Sófiyah in order to express his thanks by saying a prayer, accompanied by two inclinations of the head (rik’at). Twelve thousand monks who dwelt within and all around it, having closed its doors, threw from the roof, towers, turrets, and belfries, arrows and burning pitch, and naptha on the Moslems. Mohammed having invested the church with the armies of Islám, like a swarm of hornets, for three days and three nights, at length took it on the fifty-third day. He then having slain a few monks, entered the church, bearing the standard of the Prophet of God in his hand, and planting it on the high altar (mihráb), chaunted, for the first time, the Mohammedan ezán (call to prayers). The rest of the Muselmán victors having put the monks to the edge of the sword, Ayá Sófiyah, was deluged with the blood of the idolaters. Mohammed, in order to leave them a memorial of his skill in archery, shot a four-winged arrow into the centre of the cupola, and the trace of his arrow is still shown there. One of the archers of the Sultán’s guard having killed an infidel with his left hand, and filled his right with his blood, came into the Sultán’s presence, and clapping his hand red with blood on a white marble column, left the impression of a hand and fingers, which is still seen near the turbeh-kapú-sí. It is on the opposite corner as one enters, at the height of five men’s stature above the ground.

Eulogium on Yá Vudúd Sultán.

While Sultán Mohammed was going in solemn procession round Ayá Sófiyah a flash of lightning was seen to strike a place called Terlú-direk, and on going thither they found a body lying with its face turned towards the kibleh, and written on its illuminated breast in crimson characters, the name Yá Vudúd (O All-loving). Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, Karah-Shemsu-d-dín, and the other seventy holy men, exclaimed, “This, O Emperor! was the cause of Islámból’s falling on the fiftieth day.” Having prayed that it might fall in fifty days, on that very day he resigned his soul and bore his prayer to heaven. Then while all those learned, righteous and excellent men were making the necessary preparations for washing that noble corpse, a voice was heard from the corner of the Terlú-direk (the sweating column), saying: “He is washed and received into mercy, now therefore inter him.” All were breathless with astonishment: and those venerable sheïkhs having placed the illustrious corpse of Yá Vudúd Sultán on a bier, and intending to bury him near Shehíd-kapú-sí, proceeded to the stairs of Emír Oní, where the bier was put into a boat, which instantly, without an oar plyed or a sail set, flew like lightning, and did not stop till it came near [the tomb of] Abú Iyyúb Ensárí. There the holy man was buried, and the neighbouring landing-place was thence called Yá Vudúd Iskeleh-sí.

Sultán Mohammed Khán, Father of Victory (i.e. the Conqueror), a Sultán son of a Sultán of the Islamitic sovereigns of the House of ’Osmán, entered Islámból victoriously on Wednesday the 20th day of Jumázíu-l-ákhir, in the year of the Prophet’s flight 867 [1st July, A.D. 1453], as was expressed by the prophetic and descriptive letters of the text beldetun tayyibetun (a good city), and in the day, hour, and minute, which had been foretold to the Sultán by Ak-Shemsu-d-dín. Several poets and men of learning have made other lines and technical words containing the date of this victory of victories; but the date found in the exalted Korán is complete, if the last letters are counted as they are pronounced. Sultán Mohammed II. on surveying more closely the church of Ayá Sófiyah, was astonished at the solidity of its construction, the strength of its foundations, the height of its cupola, and the skill of its builder, Aghnádús. He caused this ancient place of worship to be cleared of its idolatrous impurities and purified from the blood of the slain, and having refreshed the brain of the victorious Moslems by fumigating it with amber and lign-aloes, converted it in that very hour into a jámi’ (a cathedral), by erecting a contracted mihráb, minber, mahfil, and menáreh, in that place which might rival Paradise. On the following Friday, the faithful were summoned to prayer by the muëzzins, who proclaimed with a loud voice this text (Kor. xxxiii. 56): “Verily, God and his angels bless the Prophet.” Ak-Shemsu-d-dín and Karah Shemsu-d-dín then arose, and placing themselves on each side of the Sultán, supported him under his arms; the former placed his own turban on the head of the conqueror, fixing in it a black and white feather of a crane, and putting into his hand a naked sword. Thus conducted to the minber he ascended it, and cried out with a voice as loud as David’s, “Praise be to God the Lord of all worlds,” (Kor. i. 1.) on which all the victorious Moslems lifted up their hands and uttered a shout of joy. The Sultán then officiating as khatíb pronounced the khutbeh, and descending from the minber, called upon Ak-Shemsu-d-dín to perform the rest of the service as Imám. On that Friday the patriarch and no less than three thousand priests who had been concealed underneath the floor of the church, were honoured by being received into Islám. One of them, who was three hundred years old, they named Bábá Mohammed. This man pointed out a hidden treasure on the right side of the mihráb, saying it was placed there by Suleïmán (Solomon), the first builder of this ancient place of worship. The Sultán having first offered up prayer there for the prosperity and perpetuity of the place, caused the ground to be dug up beneath it, and during a whole week many thousand camel-loads of treasure in coins of Tekiyánús and Okí-yúnus (Decianus and——), were carried away and deposited in the royal treasury and in the garden of the arsenal.

On the glorious Conquest of the Ok-meïdán (Archery-ground).

When the Sultán had distributed all the booty among the victors, he caused the idols like Vudd, Yághús, Ya’úf, Suvá’, and Nesr, which were found set with jewels in Ayá Sófiyah to be carried to the Ok-meïdán, and set up there as marks for all the Muselmán heroes to shoot their arrows at; and from thence an arrow which hits the mark, is to this day called by archers an idol’s arrow (púteh ókí). One of those idols was standing till knocked to pieces in the time of Sultán Ahmed Khán. Another was called Azmáïsh, because it stood on the south side, and the arrows hit it when shot with a northerly wind; the spot on which it stood is now called Tóz-kópárán-áyághí (Dust-maker’s Foot). Another idol called Hekí, placed near Kháss-kóï, was most easily hit from the north; hence the phrase “a hekí-shot.” Another called Písh-rev, placed on the north-west side, and most easily hit from the south-east (kibleh), still gives its name to such a shot. From Pelenk, placed on the west side and hit from the east, the term pelenk is derived. In short, having placed twelve different idols on the four sides of the Ok-meïdán, a grand archery-match was made, and all the old archers, each shewing his skill in taking aim at them, made glad the soul of the illustrious Sa’d Vakkás, and hence arose the custom among the people of Islámból of meeting there on holidays for the purpose of trying their skill in archery. Sultán Mohammed II. having gone thence to the garden of the arsenal, gave a banquet for three days and three nights to all the Moslem conquerors, himself appearing like the cháshnegír báshí (chief butler), with his skirts girt up round his loins and a handkerchief in his girdle, offering them bread and salt, and providing them with a splendid dinner. After the repast he carried round the ewer, and poured out water for the learned and excellent to wash their noble hands; thus for three days and three nights breaking his spirit by performing these services.

Distribution of the Booty.

After this splendid feast, which lasted three days and three nights, the Sultán accompanied by the three imperial defterdárs and all the clerks of the army, proceeded to pile up in the garden of the arsenal, the treasures taken on board of the French fleet, with those pointed out in the Ayá Sófiyah by Mohammed Bábá, and those taken from the seven thousand monasteries, convents, and palaces within the city. The first to whom their share was allotted were the physicians, oculists, surgeons, washers of the dead and grave-diggers serving in the army; next the sherífs (i.e. members of the Prophet’s family); then the learned and pious ’ulemá and sulehá (i.e. doctors of law); then the imáms, khatíbs, and sheïkhs; after them the móllás and kázies (judges); then the serden gechdis (dread-noughts); next the Arab marines who dragged the ships overland, from the village thence called Levend-chiftlik; after them the janissaries; then the sipáhíes, za’íms, tópchís, jebehjís, lághemjís, eshekchís, horsekeepers, and camp-servants, respectively forming together one hundred and seventy thousand men, to whom sixty-three thousand houses were allotted, besides their legal share of the spoils. Out of this the victors paid during their lives the tenth appointed by God’s law, to the Sultán, whose own share was three thousand eight hundred captives, twenty thousand purses of gold, coins of Tekiyánús and Yánkó son of Mádiyán, three thousand palaces, two bezestáns, and seven thousand shops. They also gave to the Sultán the mosque of Ayá Sófiyah, with seven great convents, and fixed the rent to be paid by him for the New Seráï at one thousand aspers a day. A Jew, who offered one thousand and one aspers, was put to death. In the karamán-ward of the city three hundred lofty palaces were given to the ’ulemá, one hundred and sixty-two to the janissaries, seventy to the vezírs, seven to each of the seven kubbeh vezírs. In short, all the houses in Islámból were thus distributed among the victors, and the daughter of the French King mentioned above, was given to the Emperor. Thus was every duty which the law required fulfilled. Ak-Shemsu-d-dín then standing up, thus spoke: “Know and understand ye Moslem conquerors, that it is you of whom the last of the prophets, the joy and pride of all creatures, spoke, when he said: ‘Verily they shall conquer Kostantaniyyeh; the best of commanders is their commander; the best of armies is that army!’ Squander not away then these treasures, but spend them on good and pious foundations in Islámból; be obedient to your Emperor; and as from the days of ’Osmán down to the present time, you called your Emperor Beg, so from henceforth call him Sultán; and as at the feast he girded up his loins, and served you himself, in return for his bounty, call him Khúnkár.” He then fastened to the head of the Sultán a double black and white heron’s plume (aigrette), saying: “Thou art now, O Emperor, become the chosen Prince of the House of Osmán, continue to fight valiantly in the path of God!” A shout of victory was then made, and the Muselmán warriors took possession of their new habitations. It was at that time that, with the permission of Ak-Shemsu-d-dín and the other holy men, a coin was first struck bearing this legend: “The Sultán, son of a Sultán, Sultán Mohammed Khán, son of Sultán Murád Khán, be his victory exalted; coined in Kostantaniyyeh in the year 757.” On the following day, when the Sultán, as he came out of the harem, received Ak-Shemsu-d-dín in the Arsenal-Garden: “Did you not eat some sweetmeats last night, Sire?” said the latter. “No,” replied the Sultán, “we eat none!”—“Do you not remember,” replied the holy man, “that when you were so much grieved while governor of Maghnísá, on hearing of the capture of ’Akkah by the Franks, I told you that you would eat some of their sweetmeats when you had taken Islámból? And did you not last night enjoy the society of the French princess? Was not that tasting a sweetmeat won from the Franks? Henceforward let that unexpanded rose be called ’Akídeh (sugar-candy) Khánum, and be thou thyself styled Khúnkár (blood shedder). Let this day be a day of rejoicing, but let it likewise be a day of justice! Of the three thousand blooming Mohammedan virgins who came in the suite of ’Akídeh your spouse (khássekí), let not one be touched, but send to ’Akkah, Ghazzah, Ramlah, Khaúrán, all the countries whence they were taken, a register containing their names, and order their parents, relations, and friends to repair to Islámból, that each of them may, with the consent of their parents, be joined in lawful marriage with one of the Moslem warriors, and the city of Islámból be thus made populous.” The counsels of Ak Shemsu-d-dín were followed; and in a short time ten thousand fathers, mothers, relations, and connexions, hastened to the city, and three thousand heroes were made happy by being joined in lawful matrimony to three thousand virgins. Orders were then issued to all the vezírs who were Páshás in Europe and Asia, to send all the sons of Adam from each district to Islámból. Thus the ward of Uskúblí was peopled by the inhabitants of Uskúb; the Yení Mahallah by the people of Yení-shehr; that of Ayá Sófiyah by the people of Sófiyah; that of Tenes by the Urúm (Greeks) from Mórah (the Morea); the neighbourhood of Tekkúr-serái and Shahíd-kapú-si by the Jews of fifty communities brought from Seláník (Thessalonica); Ak-Seráï by the people from Anátólí (Natolia); the ward below the castle by the Syrians and Arabs; the Persians were settled in Khójah-khán near Mahmúd Páshá; the Gypsies (Chingáneh) coming from Balát Shehrí are established in the Balát-mahalleh-sí; the U’luch from ’Akl-bend in the ’Akl-bend ward; the Arnáúts (Albanians) near the Silivrì-gate; the Jews from Safat in Kháss Kóï; the Anatolian Turks at Uskudár (Scutari); the Armenians of Tókát and Sívás near Súlú Monástir; the Magnesians in the Ma’júnjí ward; the Ekirdir and Ekmidir people at Egrí kapú; the———— in Iyyúb Sultán; the Karamanians in the Buyúk Karamán ward; the inhabitants of Kóniyah in that of Kuchúk Karamán; those of Tirehlí in Vefà; the people of the plain of Chehár-shenbeh in the bázár so called; the inhabitants of Kastemúní in the Kazánjílar (brazier’s) ward; the Láz from Tirábuzún (Trebizonde) near the mosque of Sultán Báyazíd; the people of Gelíbólí (Gallipoli) at the Arsenal; those of Izmír (Smyrna) in Great Ghalatah; the Franks in Little Ghalatah (Pera); the inhabitants of Sínób and Sámsún at Tóp-kháneh. In short, the Mohammedan inhabitants of all the large towns in the land of the House of ’Osmán were then brought to people Islámból, called on that account Islámí ból (i.e. ample is its Islám!).

By God’s decree, Islámból was taken in the month of Temmúz (July), and the sea was then dyed with the blood of some thousands of martyrs. Now it happens, that for forty days, every year at that season, the sea is still blood-red, from the gate of Iyyúb Ensár to the Martyr’s-gate (Shehíd kapú-sí). This is a marvellous thing and one of God’s secrets. “Verily God hath power over all things!”

SECTION XII.

Description of the new Seráï, the Threshold of the Abode of Felicity.

The conqueror having thus become possessed of such treasures, observed that the first thing requisite for an Emperor is a permanent habitation. He therefore expended three thousand purses on building the new Seráï. The best of several metrical dates inscribed over the Imperial gate, is that at the bottom in conspicuous gold letters on a white marble tablet, Khalled Allahu azza sáhibihi. May God make the glory of its master eternal! (i.e. A.H. 876, A.D. 1471-2). Never hath a more delightful edifice been erected by the art of man; for, placed on the border of the sea, and having the Black Sea on the North, and the White Sea on the East, it is rather a town situated on the confluence of two seas than a palace. Its first builder was that second Solomon, the two-horned Alexander. It was, therefore, erected on the remains of what had been built by former princes, and Mohammed the Conqueror added seventy private, regal, and well-furnished apartments; such as a confectionary, bake-house, hospital, armory, mat-house, wood-house, granary, privy-stables without and within, such that each is like the stable of ’Antar, store-rooms of various kinds round a garden delightful as the garden of Irem, planted with twenty thousand cypresses, planes, weeping-willows, thuyas, pines, and box-trees, and among them many hundred thousands of fruit trees, forming an aviary and tulip-parterre, which to this day may be compared to the garden of the Genii (Jin). In the middle of this garden there is a delightful hill and rising ground, on which he built forty private apartments, wainscoted with Chinese tiles, and a hall of audience (Arz-ódá) within the Port of Felicity, and a fine hippodrome, on the east side of which he erected a bath, near the privy treasury; close to which are the aviary, the pantry, the treasurers chamber, the Sultán’s closet, the Imperial mosque, the falconer’s chamber, the great and small pages’ chamber; the seferlí’s and gulkhan’s chamber, the mosque of the Buyúk-ódá, and the house of exercise, which joins the bath mentioned above. The privy chambers (kháss-ódá), mentioned before, were occupied by three thousand pages, beautiful as Yúsuf (Joseph), richly attired in shirts fragrant as roses, with embroidered tiaras, and robes drowned in gold and jewels, having each his place in the Imperial service, where he was always ready to attend. There was no harem in this palace; but one was built afterwards, in the time of Sultán Suleïmán, who added a chamber for the black eunuchs (taváshí aghá-lar), another for the white eunuchs (teberdárán khásseh, i.e. privy halbardiers), a cabinet (kóshk) for recreations, and a chamber for the díván, where the seven vezírs assembled four days in the week. Sultán Mohammed, likewise, surrounded this strongly-fortified palace with a wall that had 366 towers, and twelve thousand battlements; its circumference being 6,500 paces, with sixteen gates, great and small. Besides all the other officers before enumerated, there were in this palace twelve thousand Bóstánjís, and, including all, forty thousand souls lodged within its walls.

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.

SECTION XIV.

On the Public Officers established at Islámból at the time of the Conquest.

Within three years the city of Islámból became so populous, and contained such a sea of men, that it was impossible to restrain its inhabitants without public authority. The assistants first granted to the Grand Vezír Mahmúd Páshá, were five executioners, a regiment (ódá) of janissaries, with a Muhzir Aghá (colonel), cháúshes (apparitors) of the Tópjís and Jebehjis, a captain (ódábáshí) of the Bóstánjís, and a túfenkjí (musketeer), and matarahjí (water-carrier) taken from the janissaries, with whom he took his rounds through the city on the fourth day of every week, in order to punish by the falákah (bastinado) all transgressors of the law. He went first to the Díván-khánah (Court-house) of the tradespeople at the U’n-kapán (flour-market), and held a díván there; he next visited the stairs (iskeleh) of the fruit-market, and held a díván to fix the price of fruit; from thence he proceeded to the green-market and shambles (Salkh-khánah), where he settled the rate at which greens and mutton should be sold, and he afterwards returned to the Seráï.

The second public officer was the Segbán Báshí (commander of the Seïmens), to whom the falákah was entrusted, but he had no executioners.

The third was the judge and Móllá of Islámból, who could inflict the bastinado (falákah), and imprison for debt.

The fourth, the Móllá of Iyyúb, who could inflict the same punishments.

The fifth, the Móllá of Ghalatah, and

The sixth, the Móllá of Uskudár, possessing the same power within their respective jurisdictions.

The seventh, the Ayák Náïbí, or superintendant of the markets, who punished all who sold above the legal prices, or used false weights and measures.

The eighth, the Mohtesib Aghá-sí (inspector of shops), by whom all defaulters in buying and selling were punished, according to their offences, with imprisonment and torture; such as covering their heads with the entrails of beasts, or nailing their ears and noses to a plank.

The ninth, the ’Asas-báshí, and

The tenth, the Sú-báshí, two police-officers attended by executioners provided with whips and scourges, but not with rods and stocks (falákah). They made domiciliary visits, took up offenders, and attended at the execution of criminals condemned to death.

The eleventh, the Islámból-Aghá-sí, or commandant of Constantinople.

The twelfth, the Bóstánjí-báshí, who constantly, from night till morning, takes the round of all the villages on the sea-shore, punishes all whom he finds transgressing; and if any are deserving of death, throws them into the sea.

The thirteenth, Chórbájís (colonels of the janissaries), who continually go round, from night till morning, with five or six hundred of their soldiers in quest of suspicious persons, whom they send prisoners to the Porte, where they receive their due.

The fourteenth, the forty Judges appointed, according to the law of the Prophet, to preside over the forty Courts of Justice (mehkemeh) in Islámból, under the four Móllás mentioned above. They also have power to imprison and inflict punishment.

The fifteenth, the Sheïkho-Islám or Mufti (head of the law). He can only give the legal answer to questions submitted to him, viz. “It is,” or “It is not.” “God knows!” “Yes,” or “No.”

The sixteenth, the Anátólí Kází-askerí (military judge of Anatolia), has no right to punish, but sits in the díván as chief and president of all the Asiatic judges.

The seventeenth, the Rúm-ílí Kází-’askerí (military judge of Romelia), has likewise no power of punishing, but decides all lawsuits brought into the díván from the country, and is the head of all the European judges. He is likewise appointed, by the canons of Sultán Mohammed the Conqueror, to write all the imperial patents (beráts).

The eighteenth, the Commander (Dizdár) of the Seven Towers.

The nineteenth, the chief Architect; if any building be erected in Islámból without his permission it is pulled down, and the builders are punished.

The twentieth, the Kapúdán-Páshá (Lord High Admiral) established in the Arsenal (Ters-khánah); who commands by sea night and day.

The twenty-first, the Kyayà (ket-khodà) of the Arsenal (Ters-khánah), who, if any thieves are found by day or night in the district called Kásim Páshá, can inflict the severest punishment, even death, if necessary.

The twenty-second, the Ta’lím-khánehjí Báshí (adjutant-general, commander of the 54th regiment of janissaries), and of the kórújís (invalids), whose barracks are within the boundaries of Ok-meïdán, take their rounds there, and if they meet with any suspicious vagabonds, carry them to their commander, the Atíjí Báshí (Chief of the Archers), who, punishing them according to their deserts, orders them to be suspended from a tree by the string of the bowmen, and assailed by a shower of arrows.

It was ordained by the regulations of Sultán Mohammed the Conqueror, and that ordinance has been renewed by a khatisheríf (imperial rescript) from all his successors, that any offender whom these officers shall apprehend, if he be a soldier, shall receive no mercy, but be hung upon a tree forthwith. In fine, in the districts on both sides of the Strait of the Black Sea, there are thirty-three magistrates, and thirty-five local judges, deputies of the Móllá, in the city. But the town of Bey-kós has a separate jurisdiction, the judge of which is appointed by the Munejjim Báshí (astronomer royal). Besides the judges and magistrates already enumerated, there are also 166 District Judges, subordinate to the four Móllás of Islámból, 360 Subáshís, eighty-seven guards of janissaries, with their commanding officers (serdárs), and forty Subáshís of the free vakfs (charitable foundations). In short, the whole number of Kázís and Súbáshís within the precincts of Islámból, established by the code (kánún) of Mohammed the Conqueror, amounts to twelve hundred. There are also within the same jurisdiction the governors and magistrates of 150 corporations of tradesmen; but these governors have no legal authority to imprison and punish; they can only determine questions respecting the statutes of the corporations over which they preside.

SECTION XV.

On the Imperial Mosques in the Mohammedan City of Kostantaniyyeh.

The first, and most ancient of these places of worship dedicated to the almighty and everlasting God, is that of Ayá Sófiyah, built, as mentioned in the seventh Section, in the year 5052 after the fall of Adam. It was finished by Aghnádús (Ignatius?), a perfect architect, well skilled in geometry, under the direction of the Prophet Khizr; and forty thousand workmen, seven thousand porters, and three thousand builders, were employed in raising its domes and arches on three thousand pillars. Every part of the world was ransacked to find the richest marbles, and the hardest stones for its walls and columns. Stones of various hues, fit for the throne of Belkís, were brought from Ayá Solúgh (Ephesus) and Aïdinjik; marbles of divers colours were removed from Karamán, Shám (Syria), and the island of Kubrus (Cyprus). Some thousands of incomparable columns, wasp and olive-coloured, were imported from the splendid monuments of the skill of Solomon, standing in the neighbourhood of Átineh (Athens). After working at the building for forty years, Khizr and Aghnádús disappeared one night when they had finished half the dome. Seven years afterwards they appeared again and completed it. On its summit they placed a cross of gold an hundred Alexandrian quintals in weight, visible at Brúsah, Keshísh-dágh (Mount Olympus), ’Alem-dághí, and Istránjeh dághí. On the birth-night of the Prophet there was a dreadful earthquake, by which this and many other wonderful domes were thrown down; but it was afterwards restored by the aid of Khizr, and by the advice of the Prophet, to whom the three hundred patriarchs and monks, presiding over the church, were sent by him. As a memorial of the restoration of the dome by the aid of the Prophet and Khizr, Mohammed the Conqueror suspended in the middle of it, by a golden chain, a Golden Globe, which can hold fifty kílahs of grain, Roman measure; it is within reach of a man’s hand, and beneath it Khizr performed his service to God. Among the pious, many persons have chosen the same place for offering up their orisons; and several who have persevered in saying the morning prayer there for forty days, have obtained the blessings, temporal and spiritual, for which they prayed: it is, therefore, much frequented by the pious and necessitous for that purpose.

On the Dimensions, Builders, &c. of that ancient place of worship, Ayá Sófiyah.

This mosque is situated on elevated ground at the eastern end of the city, a thousand paces (ádim) distant from the Stable-gate (ákhór kapú) near the sea, and a thousand from Seraglio Point. The great cupola which rears its head into the skies is joined by a half-cupola, beneath which is the mihráb (sacred recess), and to the right of it a marble pulpit (minber). There are altogether on the whole building no less then 360 gilt cupolas, the largest of which is the great one in the middle; they are ornamented with broad, circular, and crystal glasses, the number of which in the whole mosque amounts to 1,070. The abovementioned cupolas (kubbehs) are adorned within by wonderful paintings, representing cherubims and men, the work of Monástir, a painter, skilful as Arzheng. These figures seem even now, to a silent and reflecting observer, to be possessed of life and thought. Besides them, there are, at the four angles supporting the great cupola, four angels, no doubt the four archangels, Jebráyíl (Gabriel), Míkáyíl (Michael), Isráfíl, and ’Azráyíl, standing with their wings extended, each 56 cubits high. Before the birth of the Prophet, these four angels used to speak, and give notice of all dangers which threatened the empire and the city of Islámból; but since his Highness appeared, all talismans have ceased to act. This cupola is supported by four arches (ták) that excel the arch of the palace of Kesra (Chosroes) (Táki Kesra), the arch of Khavernak; that of Kaïdafà; that of Káf, and that of Sheddád. The large columns, of the richest colours and most precious marble, are forty Mecca-cubits high; those of the second story are not less beautiful, but are only thirty cubits high. There are two galleries running round three sides of this mosque, and forming upper mosques for the worshippers; there is an ascent to them on both sides, which may be ascended on horseback; it is a royal road paved with white marble. The mosque has altogether 361 doors, of which 101 are large gates, through which large crowds can enter. They are all so bewitched by talismans, that if you count them ever so many times, there always appears to be one more than there was before. They are each twenty cubits high, and are adorned with goldsmith’s work and enamel. The middle gate towards the Kiblah, which is the highest of all, is fifty cubits high. It is made of planks from the ark which Noah constructed with his own hand. Over this central southern gate there is a long coffin of yellow brass, which contains the body of Aï Sóf, who caused Ayá Sófiyáh to be built; and though many emperors have tried at different times to open this coffin, an earthquake and a horrible crash immediately heard within the mosque, have always prevented them from compassing their designs.

Above it, in a niche, supported on small columns, stands a picture of Jerusalem (the ancient Kibleh), in marble; within it there are jewels of inestimable value, but it is also talismanic, and cannot be touched by any body. In this place there stood likewise upon a green column an image of Mother Meryem (the Virgin Mary), holding in her hand a carbuncle as big as a pigeons egg, by the blaze of which the mosque was lighted every night. This carbuncle was also removed in the birthnight of the Prophet, to Kizil Almà (Rome), which received its name (Red Apple) from thence. The Spanish infidels were once or twice masters of Islámból, and thence that egg (the carbuncle) came into their hands. The walls of this mosque, as well as the extremities of the columns, are carved like various flowers, with the most exquisite workmanship. The Mihráb and Minber are of white marble highly ornamented.

A Description of the four Minárehs (Minarets).

While Mohammed the Conqueror was residing as Viceroy at Edreneh (Adrianople), there was a great earthquake at Islámból, which made the northern side of Ayá Sófiyah bend, and threatened its ruin. The infidels were much alarmed; but Prince Mohammed, in a friendly manner, sent the old architect, ’Alí Nejjár, who had built the great mosques at Brúsah and Edreneh for Yildirim Báyazíd, and was then living, to the Greek king, in order to repair Ayá Sófiyah. It was he who erected for the support of the building four strong buttresses, every one of which is like the barrier of Yájúj (Gog). The architect having made a staircase of two hundred steps in the buttress on the right side of Ayá Sófiyah, among the shops of the turban-makers (sárikchí), the king asked for what purpose this staircase was intended? The architect answered, “For going out upon the leads in case of need?” When the work was completed the king bestowed rich presents on the architect, who returning to Edreneh, said to Sultán Mohammed, “I have secured the cupola of Ayá Sófiyah, O emperor, by four mighty buttresses; to repair it depended on me, to conquer it depends on thee. I have also laid the foundation of a mináreh for thee, where I offered up my prayers.” On that very foundation, three years afterwards, by the will of God, Sultán Mohammed built a most beautiful six-sided mináreh. Sultán Selím II. afterwards, in the year——, added another at the corner opposite to the gate of the Imperial palace (Bábi humáyún, the Sublime Porte), which is more ornamented, but a little lower than that of Mohammed the Conqueror. Sultán Murád III. built subsequently two other minárehs on the north and west side, each with only one gallery.

The ensigns (’alems, i.e. the crescents) on the top of these four minárehs are each of twenty cubits, and richly gilt; but that on the great dome is fifty cubits long, and the gilding of it required fifty thousand pieces of gold coin. It is visible at the distance of two farasangs by land, and a hundred miles off by sea. Murád III. also brought from the island of Mermereh (Marmora) two princely basons of white marble, each of them resembling the cupola of a bath, and so large that neither Jemshíd nor Dárá ever possessed such an one. Each of them can contain a thousand kílehs. They stand inside of the mosque, one on the right hand and the other on the left, full of living water, for all the congregation to perform their ablutions and quench their thirst. The same Sultán caused the walls of the mosque to be cleaned and smoothed; he encreased the number of the lamps, and built four raised stone platforms (mahfil) for the readers of the Korán, and a lofty pulpit on a slender column for the muëzzins. Sultán Murád IV. the conqueror of Baghdád, raised upon four marble columns a throne (kursì) of one piece of marble, for the preacher (vá’iz), and appointed eight sheïkhs as preachers of the mosque: the Efendís Kází-zadeh, Uskudárlí Mahmúd, Ibráhím sheïkh to Jerráh Páshá, Sivásí, Kudsí, Terjimán Sheïkhí ’Omar, and the great sheïkh, Emír Ishtíbí, who was so learned and skilful in answering questions and solving difficulties respecting the law, God be praised! We had the happiness and advantage of enjoying the exalted society of all these doctors and hearing their instructions. Sultán Ahmed I. built, on the left of the mihráb, a private recess (maksúrah) for the exclusive use of the emperor. In short this mosque, which has no equal on earth, can only be compared to the tabernacle of the seventh heaven, and its dome to the cupola of the ninth. All those who see it, remain lost in astonishment on contemplating its beauties; it is the place where heavenly inspiration descends into the minds of the devout, and which gives a foretaste even here below of the garden of Eden (‘Aden). Sultán Murád IV., who took great delight in this incomparable mosque, erected a wooden enclosure in it within the southern door, and when he went to prayers on Fridays, caused cages, containing a great number of singing-birds, and particularly nightingales, to be hung up there, so that their sweet notes, mingled with the tones of the muëzzins’ voices, filled the mosque with a harmony approaching to that of Paradise. Every night (in the month of Ramazàn) the two thousand lamps lighted there, and the lanterns, containing wax-tapers perfumed with camphor, pour forth streams of light upon light; and in the centre of the dome a circle of lamps represents in letters, as finely formed as those of Yákút Musta’simí, that text of the Scripture, “God is the light of the heavens and the earth.” There are also, on the four sides of the mosque, some thousands of texts in beautiful characters; and there, likewise, by command of Sultan Murád IV., the celebrated writer Etmekjí-zádeh Chelebí wrote the names of the Most High, of the prophet Mohammed and his four companions, in Kara Hisárí hand, so large that each elif measures ten arshíns (10 ells = 23¼ feet), and the rest of the letters are formed in the same proportion. Ayá Sófiyah is the Ka’beh of all Fakírs, and there is no larger mosque in Islámból. It possesses all the spiritual advantages to be obtained in any other, whether it be El Aksà at Kuds (Jerusalem), or the mosque of the Ommaviyyeh (Ommiades), at Shám (Damuscus), or that of El Ez-her at Misr (Cairo). It is always full of holy men, who pass the day there in fasting and the night in prayer. Seventy lectures (on theology) well pleasing to God are delivered there daily, so that to the student it is a mine of knowledge, and it never fails to be frequented by multitudes every day.

The Servants (Khuddám) of the Mosque.

They are the Imáms (reciters of the Form of Prayer); the Khatíbs (reciters of the Khotbah, bidding-prayer on Friday); Sheïkhs (preachers); Devrkhán (Scripture readers); Ders-’ámils (lecturers); Talabah (students); Muëzzins (cryers, who call to prayers from the Minárehs); Ejzá kháns (lesson readers); Na’t kháns (reciters of the praises of the prophet and his associates); Bevvábs (door-keepers); and Káyims (sextons): in all full two thousand servants, for the revenues of the mosque settled upon it by pious bequests (evkáf) are very large.

Stations and Places in this Mosque visited as peculiarly fitted for Devotion.

First. Ayá Sófiyah is, in itself, peculiarly the house of God.

Second. The station (Makám) of Moslemah, in a place called U’ch Búják (the three corners), where he, who was commander of the forces in the Khalifate of Mo’áviyyeh, is said to have offered up prayer.

Third. The station of Iyyúb Ansárí, who, after the peace made in the year of the Hijrah 52, entered Ayá Sófiyah and performed a service of two inflections on the spot called Makámi Iyyúb Sultán, south of the Sweating Column. There is now a Mihráb there much frequented at all the five services.

Fourth. The station of ’Omar Ibn ’Abdo-l-’aziz, who being commander at the peace in the year of the Hijrah 97, offered up prayers on the west side of Ayá Sófiyah, at the foot of the green Mihráb. This place goes now by his name.

Fifth. The station of Hárúnu-r-rashíd, who, at his coming a second time to Kostantaniyyeh, in the year of the Hijrah 58, having crucified King Yaghfúr in the belfry of Ayá Sófiyah, offered up prayers within the mosque in the kiblah of the prophet Solomon, on the south-east side, within the gate of the Defunct (Meyyit-kapú-sí).

Sixth. The station of Seyyid Battál Ghází in the sky-smiting belfry of the church.

Seventh. The station of Bábá Ja’fer Sultán, Ambassador of Hárúnu-r-rashíd.

Eighth. The station of Sheïkh Maksúd Sultán, the companion of Bábá Ja’fer. These two, with the king’s (i.e. the Greek emperor’s) permission, both offered up prayers on the eastern side of the mosque, within the sepulchral gate (Turbeh-kapú-sí), at the places now bearing their name.

Eighth. The station of Salomon, who is said to have offered up prayer on the ground where Ayá Sófiyah now stands, at the place called the Green Mihráb, to the right of the Minber.

Ninth. The station of Khizr, beneath the gilt ball in the centre of the cupola, is a place where some thousands of holy men have enjoyed the happiness of discoursing with that great prophet.

Tenth. The station of the forty, to the south of the platform of the Muëzzins, is a place where the ground is paved with forty stones of various colours, and where forty holy men stood when the extraordinary accident which happened to Gulábí Aghá took place.

Narrative of Gulábí Aghá.

Gulábí Aghá, Rikáb dár (stirrup-holder) of Sultán Suleïmán, a pious man, who died at the age of 151 years, relates that in consequence of the great plague in the reign of Sultán Selím II., which at Islámból carried off three thousand souls every day, that prince ordered the prayer Istiská to be proclaimed during three days; and that the mosque being much crowded on the holy night Kadr, in order to hear the sermon of the Sheïkh (i.e. Doctor) of the order of Beshiktásh Evliyá Efendí, the Sultán ordered the people present to be numbered. This Sheïkh, who was born at Tareb-afzún (Trapezonde), was a foster-brother of Sultán Suleïmán. The throng to hear his sermon was so great that all the people of Islámból filled the mosque three days before he preached. Sheïkh Yahyá being now in the middle of his sermon, and the whole multitude listening to his admonitions with their utmost attention, Gulábí Aghá, who was in the midst of the crowd, felt himself much distressed by a necessity of withdrawing. His body began to swell like the kettle-drum of Bagdad; he stood up two or three times on tip-toes to see whether there was no possibility of making his way through the multitude, but saw that a man must needs be engulfed in this ocean of men. He was ready to die for shame when he addressed himself to the forty, on the station of whom he was then standing, and begged of them to save him from being disgraced by exposure to the crowd. At that moment he saw a stately man standing near him, in the dress of a Sipáhí (soldier), who said to him, “I will release thee from thy pain;” and thus saying, stretched his sleeve over Gulábí’s head, who instantly found himself transported into a meadow on the bank of the stream near Kághid-khánah. His pain and distress were removed forthwith; and in a moment afterwards he was again in the same place in the mosque. When the sermon was finished all the hundred and one gates were shut except the large one at the south side, where the Defterdár Dervísh Chelebí, son of the Sheïkh Bábá Nakkásh, placed himself with his attendants in order to count all those who were then present in the mosque and its three stories of galleries, whose numbers amounted to fifty-seven thousand men. Gulábí Aghá not having the least doubt that the Sípáhí, who had transported him so charitably into the meadows of Kághid Khánah, was no other than the prophet Khizr himself, laid hold of the skirt of his robe, saying, “I am thy slave, O King! and will never again quit thee.” The Sipáhí answered him very roughly, “Be gone, man! We are not the man of whom thou speakest.” Gulábí Aghá, however, laid hold of him the faster; and the Sipáhí twice boxed his ears, and thus they made their way through the crowd. Gulábí, however, would not lose sight of him, and following him very close, saw him enter a place of retirement near Ayá Sófiyah. Gulábí waited for some time at the door, when, lo! it opened, and there came out a young cook of the Janissaries, elegantly dressed, with his official knife and silver chains. Gulábí instantly laid hold of him; but the Janissary cried out, “Begone, man, thou art mad!” Gulábí, notwithstanding, would not loose his hold; on which the cook of the Janissaries gave him a good thump, and entered a Búzah khánah in the market of Ayá Sófiyah, where he ate some kabábs and bread and drank búzah (a kind of beer), without taking the least notice of Gulábí. The Janissary went out and Gulábí followed him into a narrow street, where finding they were alone, he threw himself down at his feet, and entreated him, saying, “Be gracious to me, O Prophet, and grant me thy love!” The Janissary answered, “O seeker! although thou art a faithful lover, thou art not yet ripe, but wantest much of perfection, and must still undergo many trials; but as, notwithstanding my rebuffs, thou followedst me with unabated zeal, I will now bring thee to an old man, in whose company thou shalt remain forty days without opening thy lips or asking concerning any men or things that shall pass under thine eye.” He then, in that solitary place, knocked at a low and dirty gate, which was opened by an old camel-lipped negro, who pushed them both into the house. Gulábí, when he had recovered his senses, found himself in an assembly of men, who saluted him and received his salutations in return. The Janissary changed dress, and took the chief seat, after having kissed the hand of the old man, to whom he related Gulábí’s adventures. The Sheïkh said, “If he has renounced the world and all the pleasures of the senses, he is welcome in this assembly of Forty.” Gulábí then remained three days and three nights without eating or drinking. His house, family, and relations at U’n-kapání came into his mind; but he put his trust in the Almighty and resigned himself to his will. On the fourth, the old man said, “Now look to the business entrusted to you by God.” At the same time the man, who had first assumed the shape of a Sipáhí and then of a Janissary, stood up and brought out from a closet thirty-eight kinds of weapons, one of which he laid before thirty-eight of the men in company, placing before himself a Janissary’s basin with water in it. Gulábí being eager to drink, his guide said, “Have patience, we shall this day see whether this place be attainable by thee.” Some time afterwards there appeared on the opposite side, a male child; and one of the company, taking his sword, immediately cut off its head. “Friend,” said Gulábí, “why did you kill that boy? Did not I say, do not be curious?” replied his companion, the Janissary. Next appeared two men pursued by a lion, who tore one of them to pieces and eat him up, while the other saved himself by taking shelter behind the Sheïkh. Gulábí asking for an explanation, received the same answer. Next came an innocent little child pursued by a wolf. One of the men, sitting on the prayer-carpet (sejjádeh), took his bow and arrow and shot the beast dead; after which the child vanished in a corner. Three men then appeared on the other side, two of whom were hanged by the Sheïkh’s permission; and the third was about to be hanged, when Gulábí begun to intercede with the Sheïkh for his life. The Janissary seizing Gulábí by the collar, made him sit down in his place, and said, “Did I not tell you to have patience for forty days?” At that moment the water in the basin before the Janissary began to boil and bubble, and two small ships appeared upon it, one of which, by the Janissary’s aid, was saved, but the other perished with all its crew and passengers, except a little boy and girl who escaped to the edge of the basin. The Janissary pushing the innocent boy into the water, he was drowned; but the girl he drew out of the basin. Gulábí crying out, “Why didst thou drown that innocent boy, and why were all those Muselmáns lost in that ship?” The Sheïkh, from his seat as President, said, “Let us give a bit of bread to this man; and come let us offer up a prayer for him in the presence of these Forty.” So they all treated him with kindness and gave him a loaf of bread, an akchah, a piece of gold, a bunch of grapes, a date, and an olive; and prayed for him that he might continue in good health till his happy end, be honoured among the angels, preserved from misfortunes, heavenly and earthly, and die, after a long and prosperous life, under the shadow of the banner of the prophet of God. The whole company, at the termination of the prayer, said “Amen!” The Janissary and the negro door-keeper then laying hold of Gulábí’s collar, said, “Close thy eyes!” He closed his eyes, and on opening them again, suddenly found himself in one of the taverns at Ghalatah, where a crowd of drunken Janissaries hailed him; saying, “Come, old man, and drink a pot with us!” Gulábí, who had fasted three days, and supposed these Janissaries to be of the same kind as that who had been his guide, removed his hunger by partaking of the food prepared in the tavern. At length, when sunset was near, he took a boat to return to the U’n-kapání. On coming into a narrow street he was assailed by two drunken Janissaries, who stripped him of his turban and his sable robe, and said they would kill him if he did not drink another cup of wine. Whether he would or not, he was compelled to drink it. So he returned home naked, and never afterwards left his house again, having abandoned the world and given himself up to a spiritual life, in which he soon became a great man. He dwelt within the U’n-kapání among the goldsmiths, bestowing great liberalities on all comers and goers, to the astonishment of all men. Having heard the account of these extraordinary events which befel the late Gulábí Aghá (to whom God has granted mercy and pardon) at the station of the Forty, in Ayá Sófiyah, from his own mouth, it appeared proper to insert it here. The proof of it rests with the relater. One of the traditions of the Prophet says, “A liar is he who makes a story out of everything he hears.” We now return to our description of the stations in Ayá Sófiyah.

Eleventh. The station of the Apostles on the eastern side of the gallery.

Twelfth. The station of Ak Shemsu-d-dín, near the Sweating Column, which stands on the western side of the South gate. It is a square marble pillar eleven cubits high, and cased to a mans height with brass. It sweats day and night, winter and summer.

Thirteenth. The station of the South-East gate (Kiblah kapú-sí). This gate being made of the wood of Noah’s ark, all merchants who travel by sea, and sailors, are accustomed to offer up a prayer, accompanied by two inclinations of the body, and touch the wood with their hands, saying a Fátihah (i.e. the first chapter of the Korán) for the rest of Noah’s soul before they set sail.

Virtues of the Golden Ball.

If any man have a bad memory which he wishes to improve, he should place himself beneath the Golden Ball suspended in the middle of the cupola, and say the morning prayer seven times; three times repeat the words Allahumma Yá káshifo-l mushkilát Yá ’álimu-s-sir va-l khafiyyát (i.e. O God who openest all difficult things and knowest all secret and hidden things), and each time eat seven black grapes, and then whatever he hears will remain fixed in his memory as if engraven on stone. A most noted example of this was Hamdí Chelebí, son of Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, who lived in the village of Turbahlí Góïnuk. He was so foolish and forgetful, that if any one gave him the Selám he was obliged to write the word Selám on a piece of paper and read it before he could comprehend that he ought to answer ‘Ve aleïkum es-selám.’ No doctors could do him any good, so that at last he was completely a prey to forgetfulness, till he went, by Ak-Shemsu-d-dín’s advice, to Ayá Sófiyah, where, after saying the requisite prayers, and eating the grapes as prescribed above, beneath the Golden Ball, he was so completely cured of his stupidity, that he began immediately to compose his poem of Yusuf and Zuleïkhá, which he finished in seven months; after which he wrote his Kiyáfet-námeh (Treatise on Physiognomy), which is known all over the world as a wonderful poem on the nature of the Sons of Adam.

Fourteenth. The station of the cool window, on the south-east side (Kibleh) of Ayá Sófiyah, on the inner side of the Imperial Gate, is a window opening to the north, where fragrant breezes and songs of the nightingales from the garden outside refresh the soul. It is there that Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, immediately after the conquests, delivered his Lectures on Joreïri’s Commentary on the Korán; and having prayed that all students who pursued their studies there should be blessed with success, that spot has ever since been a delightful place. It was there also that our instructor, the Sheïkh of Sheïkhs, Evliyá Efendí, that master of the art of reading the Korán, delivered his lectures on that science to some thousands of hearers.

Fifteenth. The station of the Lord Jesus’s cradle, in a corner on the eastern side of the upper gallery, is a hollow trough of reddish marble like a cradle, where the Christian women used to place their children when sick in order to obtain their recovery.

Sixteenth. The station of the Washing Place of the Lord Jesus. Near the cradle just mentioned above, there is another square trough of stone, where the Prophet Jesus was washed immediately after he was delivered from the womb of his mother Meryem. Kostantín the Ancient, mentioned above, is said to have brought both the cradle and the font from Beïtu-l-lahm to the south of Kudsi Sheríf, but the humble writer of these lines saw the washing-trough of Jesus at Beïtu-l-lahm. That children who are crooked and sickly, when washed in the trough in Ayá Sófiyah immediately become straight and healthy, as if revived by the breath of Jesus, is known to all the world.

Seventeenth. The station of the Gate of the Seven. On the east side of the upper gallery there is a large door, the folds of which are not of wood, but of white marble adorned with sculpture. It is visited and admired by all travellers and architects as not having its fellow on the face of the earth. It is a favourite place of worship.

The Spectacle of the resplendent Stones.

On the east side of the upper gallery there are five or six smooth flat slabs of various coloured stones, which reflect the rays of the rising sun with so bright a light that the eye of man cannot look stedfastly on them. In short, there are some thousands of holy places of pilgrimage in Ayá Sófiyah, which is a Ka’beh for Fakírs, but the writer of these pages has only described those which he knew. The whole of this mosque is also covered with lead, which has remained uninjured for so many thousand years from its being mixed up with some thousand quintals (kantár) of gold. All architects are lost in astonishment at the solidity of the foundations of this vast building, and no tongue or pen is capable of adequately describing it. We have seen the mosques of all the world; but never one like this. Mohammed the Conqueror, after having repaired this mosque, also repaired that called Little Ayá Sófiyah, near the Kadirghah límání (galley harbour), which had been previously a church built by Elínah, mother of Kostantín.

The Mosque of Zírek Báshí.

This is also a large mosque, built by Kostantín for the benefit of the soul of the Lord Yahyá (St. John), and called, in the time of the Nasárá (Christians) Menastir Sanjovaniyyeh (Monastero San Giovanni). The holy body of that Saint is now at Malta, which is, therefore, called Sanjovanniyyeh (i.e. Malta di San Giovanni). It was carried away by the Maltese infidels from a convent in the village of Beït Sabástiyyeh (Σεβαστὴ), near Kudsi Sheríf. His head is still preserved in a golden dish in a cavern in the middle of the mosque of the Bení Ommayyeh in Shám (Damascus). The Maltese having removed the body of St. John from Beït Sabástiyyeh, carried it to ’Akkah, and there enclosing it in a chest adorned with jewels, conveyed it to their own country; having ever since made all their conquests in the name of St. John, whose name and figure they now bear, together with the cross, upon their banners. As St. John was nearly related to Jesus, on his mother the Virgin Marys side, the mother of Constantin built this mosque as a convent to the honour of his spirit. It was enclosed by a very strong wall, had a cistern of its own, and cells for three thousand monks. After the conquest, Mohammed the Conqueror converted it into a mosque, and it has forty-six cupolas great and small, and many beautiful columns. All its cupolas are gilt, and as it stands upon a hill, it is much admired and extremely conspicuous. In short, Mohammed the Conqueror, in the course of his reign, converted no less than 6,670 large monasteries (deïr) into places of worship for Musulmáns. He afterwards began to build a splendid mosque on his own account. He began by building the Irghát hammámí (workmen’s bath) in the Karamán chárshú-sí (Karamanian market), that the workmen might perform their ablutions every day before they began to work at the mosque. This was finished in forty days, and still bears the same name.

Description of the Mosque of Mohammed the Conqueror.

The foundations of it were laid in the year 867 (A.D. 1463), and it was finished A.H. 875 (A.D. 1470). The date of its commencement is expressed by the Arabic words Sheyyed-allahu erkánehá. It is situated on high ground, in the midst of Islámból, on the site of a convent which bore the name of king Vezendún (Byzantium). This convent having been entirely destroyed by an earthquake its site was fixed upon for this new mosque by the conqueror.

Form of this Mosque.

The ascent to it is by a flight of stone steps on the right and left; and its height from the ground to the roof is 87 builders cubits, four cubits being the height from the ground, of the platform on which it stands. It has a large cupola in the centre, and semi-cupolas over the Mihráb. The Mihráb, Mimber, and Mahfils, for the Muëzzins and the Emperor, are of white marble and of ancient workmanship. The cupola has two rows of galleries adorned with lamps. On the left side of the Mihráb stands an ancient banner in long strips, made of Alí’s doublet (jubbeh). There is nothing suspended in this mosque except lamps; but it possesses great spiritual advantages, and prayers offered up in it are sure to be answered, because the workmen employed in building it were all Musulmáns; and to this day neither Jews nor Christians are allowed to enter its blessed doors. Its spirituality was secured by the workmen, who never began their work till they had performed their ablutions, and it was built from the wealth obtained in the Conquest.

On issuing from its southern (kiblah) gate, there is seen on the right hand, a square white marble column, on which the following traditional saying of the Prophet is inscribed in blue and gold and in large Jellí characters, by Demirjí Kúlí:—“Verily, Kostantaniyyeh shall be conquered! How excellent a commander is that commander! How excellent a host is that host!” It is approached on the southern side, also, by two stone staircases on the right and left; and on the four sides of its court (harem) there are stone benches (soffahs) and variegated columns, the sculptures on which astonish the beholder. On a needle-like pillar, within the southern gate of the court, there is a figure representing a Mevleví Dervísh, with his cap and fan (mirvahah). In the centre of this court there is a large basin, covered by a leaden cupola, supported by eight columns. Round this basin there are verdant cypresses towering to the sky like minárehs, and each appearing like a green angel. On the right and left of the mosque there are lofty minárehs, with a single gallery. The cloisters round the court are covered with leaden cupolas, and the floor is paved with variegated marble. On the outside border of the windows of the court the Súrah Fátihah (1st chap. of the Korán) is inscribed in white marble letters on a green ground, in the character invented by Yákút Mosta’simí, which is not equalled by any thing of the kind in all Islámból. The architect, to shew his skill in the construction of this basin in the centre of the court, placed over it a brazen cage like a net, which is also itself a masterpiece. The water rushing out, day and night, from the pipes of this basin, affords abundantly wherewith to quench the thirst of the devout, and enable them to perform their ablutions. The great cupola of the mosque seems also to hang without support, like the vault of heaven. Before the Mihráb is the monument of Mohammed the Conqueror and his family. Besides which, on the sides of the mosque there is a great court which has eight gates, and fine gardens on both sides. Outside of it there are the eight celebrated colleges (Semániyyeh), filled with students, on both sides of which are their apartments and stables. There is also a refectory (Dáru-z-ziyáfet), a hospital (Dáru-sh-shifá), a cáravánseráï for guests, an ancient bath, and an A B C school for children. When all these buildings, crowded together, are seen from a height above, they alone appear like a town full of lead-covered domes.

Appeal of the Mi’már Báshí (Head Builder) to the Law of the Prophet against the Conqueror.

Mohammed being, like Jem, a very passionate Emperor, severely rebuked the architect for not having built his mosque of the same height as Ayá Sófiyah, and for having cut down the columns, which were each worth the whole tribute of Rúm (Asia Minor). The architect excused himself by saying, that he had cut down two columns three cubits each on purpose to give his building more solidity and strength against the earthquakes, so common in Islámból, and had thus made the mosque lower than Ayá Sófiyah. The Emperor, not satisfied with this excuse, ordered both the architects hands to be cut off, which was done accordingly. On the following day the architect appeared with his family before the tribunal of the Kází, styled Islámból-Mollá-sí, to lay his complaint against the Emperor and appeal to the sentence of the law. The Judge immediately sent his officer (Kiahyà) to cite the Emperor to appear in court. The Conqueror, on receiving this summons, said, “The command of the Prophet’s law must be obeyed!” and immediately putting on his mantle and thrusting a mace into his belt, went into the Court of Law. After having given the selám aleïk, he was about to seat himself in the highest place, when the Kází said, “Sit not down, Prince, but stand on thy feet, together with thine adversary, who has made an appeal to the law. The Mi’már Báshí (head architect) thus made his complaint: “My Lord (Sultánum)! I am a perfect master builder and a skilful mathematician; but this man, because I made his mosque low and cut down two of his columns, has cut off my two hands, has ruined me, and deprived me of the means of supporting my family. It is thy part to pronounce the sentence of the noble law.” The Judge then said to the Emperor, “What sayest thou, Prince? Have you caused this man’s hands to be cut off innocently?” The Emperor immediately replied, “By heaven! my Lord (Sultánum), this man lowered my mosque; and for having cut down two columns of mine, each of which was worth the tribute from Misr (Egypt), and thus robbed my mosque of all renown, by making it so low, I did cut off his hands: it is for thee to pronounce the sentence of the noble law.” The Kází immediately answered: “Prince (Begum), Renown is a misfortune! If a mosque be upon a plain, and low and open, worship in it is not thereby prevented. If thy stone had been a precious stone, its value would have been only that of a stone; but of this man, who has now for these forty years subsisted by his skilful workmanship, you have illegally cut off the hands. He can henceforward do nothing more than cohabit with his wife. The maintenance of him and his numerous family necessarily, by law, falls upon thee. What sayest thou, Prince (Begum)?” Sultán Mahommed answered: “Thou must pronounce the sentence of the law!” “This is the legal sentence,” replied the Kází, “that if the architect requires the law to be strictly enforced, your hands be cut off; for if a man do an illegal act which the noble law doth not allow, that law decrees that he shall be requited according to his deeds.” The Sultán then offered to grant him a pension from the public treasury of the Musulmáns. “No!” returned the Móllá; “it is not lawful to take this from the public treasury: the offence was yours; my sentence, therefore, is, that from your own private purse you shall allow this maimed man ten aspers (akchahs) a-day.” “Let it be twenty aspers a-day,” said the Conqueror; “but let the cutting off of his hands be legalized.” The architect, in the contentment of his heart, exclaimed, “Be it accounted lawful in this world and the next!” and, having received a patent for his pension, withdrew. Sultán Mohammed also received a certificate of his entire acquittal. The Kází then apologized for having treated him as an ordinary suitor; pleading the rigid impartiality of law, which requires justice to be administered to all without distinction; and entreating the Emperor to seat himself on the sacred carpet (sejjádeh). “Efendí,” said the Sultán, somewhat irritated, and drawing out his mace from under the skirt of his robe, “if thou hadst shewn favour to me, saying to thyself, ‘This is the Sultán,’ and hadst wronged the architect, I would have broken thee in pieces with this mace!” “And if thou, Prince (Begum),” said the Kází, “hadst refused to obey the legal sentence pronounced by me, thou wouldst have fallen a victim to Divine vengeance; for I should have delivered thee up to be destroyed by the dragon beneath this carpet.” On saying which he lifted up his carpet, and an enormous dragon put forth its head, vomiting fire from its mouth: “Be still,” said the Kází, and again laid the carpet smooth; on which the Sultán kissed his noble hands, wished him good day, and returned to his palace.

Subsequently, Abdál Sinán, when Mi’már Báshí, added some embellishments to this mosque, and, at a later period, ’Alí Kúshjí, the celebrated astronomer, erected a school for the instruction of Muselmán children in the Korán within the precincts (harem) of this mosque, near the Dyer’s gate (Bóyájíler kapú-sí) opposite to the great dome. The same astronomer also placed there a sun-dial, which has not its equal in the whole world. It is engraved on a square marble tablet, according to that text of the Korán:—“Dost thou at all know how thy Lord hath extended the shadow?”

After these events, in the reign of Báyazíd Velí, there was a great earthquake at Islámból for seven days and six nights. The castle of Ghalatah was damaged in many places; but it was repaired by the architect, Murád, who recorded the date of the repairs in an inscription engraved in the Jellí character on a square marble tablet. The reparations of the city were finished in sixty days. It is written, that this was the severest earthquake since the time of Yánkó ibn Mádyán. Báyazíd afterwards built a bridge of fourteen arches over the river Sakariyah, at the town of Keïveh, in the Sanják of Izmít (Nicomedia); another of nineteen arches, over the river Kizil Irmák, at the city of ’Osmánjik; and a third of nineteen arches, over the Gedúz (Hermus), in the province of Sárú khán; after which he began to build the mosque that bears his name, near the old palace in Islámból. Its foundations were laid in the year 903 (A.D. 1498), and it was finished in A.H. 911 (1505-6). It is built nearly in the same style as the mosque of his father Mohammed the Conqueror; but its two minarets are contiguous, not to it, but to the two rows of houses built on each side for the accommodation of strangers, which were subsequently added to the mosque.

Description of the Mosque of Sultán Báyazíd II.

It is a square building supporting a large dome, flanked by semi domes on the south-eastern (Kiblah), and opposite sides. On the right and left of the mosque there are two purple columns of porphyry, of which the like are to be found only in the mosque of Sultán Kaláún, in Caïro; and there is suspended from these a double row of lamps. On the right side of the mosque an elevated gallery has been constructed for the use of the Sultáns of the house of ’Osmán at the public service on Fridays. Sultán Ibráhím subsequently enclosed three sides of the gallery with gilt gratings, so that it resembles a beautiful cage, or net-work, or rather a palace of the immortals. The Mihráb, Minber, and Mahfil, though made of marble, are simple and unornamented; and on the first are inscriptions written in beautiful characters. The mosque has five gates, and the outer court (harem) is adorned with stone benches (soffahs), and on each side a cloister, supported by variegated columns; and in the centre there is a large basin, where all the congregation renew their ablutions. A cupola, supported by eight white marble columns, was placed over the basin by Sultán Murád IV., the Conqueror of Baghdád. On different sides of it four lofty cypresses have been planted. When the foundations of this noble mosque were laid, the Mi’már Báshí having asked the Sultán where he should place the mihráb, was desired by his Majesty to tread upon his foot; having done which, he immediately had a vision of the noble Ka’bah, and knew, consequently, where to place the mihráb. He, therefore, prostrated himself at the Sultán’s feet and began the work, the Sultán having previously offered up a prayer, accompanied by two inclinations of the body, for its happy completion. On the first Friday after it was finished, when there was an assembly of some thousands, the congregation, knowing that the Sultán had never in his life failed to offer up the afternoon (’asr) and evening (’ashà) prayers, insisted on his performing the functions of Imám. The Sultán, being aware that no one present was so well acquainted with those services as himself, consented to perform them. As this mosque was entirely built with lawful money, it has great spiritual advantages; and being situated in the centre of the markets of Islámból, is crowded day and night by thousands of devout Muselmáns, who are offering up their prayers there without ceasing; so that it has often happened that before one party has got through the afternoon (’asr) service, as far as the Ayetu-l Kursí (the verse of the throne, Kor. ii. 256), another coming in prevents the first from finishing. The pipes of the basin in the court are never closed, but pour forth streams of water day and night, because the congregation never fails. This mosque is always illuminated by flashes of light; and before the window of the mihráb there is a garden like that of Irem, adorned with various fruits and flowers, where, beneath a monument of white marble, covered with lead, rest the remains of its founder. Round the inner and outer courts of this mosque there are shops of all kinds of trades, with a public kitchen, a refectory, and hostel for travellers; a school for instructing the poor and rich in the Korán; and a college for lectures on the art of reciting it. This court has six gates; and is adorned, externally, with lofty trees, most of them mulberries, under the shades of which some thousands of people gain a livelihood by selling various kinds of things. Outside of this court there is a large valley, called the Meïdán of Sultán Báyazíd, adorned on its four sides with shops; and on one side by the great college of the same Sultán, which has seventy cupolas. The superintendent (Názir) of this mosque is the Sheïkhu-l Islám (i.e. the Muftí); he also gives the public lectures in this college. He delivers his lectures once a week, and the students receive a monthly stipend, besides an allowance for meat and wax-lights: this is a very well-endowed foundation. This mosque has altogether 2,040 servants; and none has a better salary than the Muvakkit, or Regulator of Time; because all the seamen and mariners in the empire of Islám depend, for the regulation of time, on the Muvakkit of Sultán Báyazíd Khán; and as the mihráb of this mosque was miraculously placed in the true position of Kiblah: all sea-captains regulate their compasses by it; and all the infidel astronomers in Firengistán, as is universally known, correct their watches and compasses by the mosque of Sultán Báyazíd. Besides this mosque, that Emperor built sixty other places of worship in the countries which he conquered. The mosque and convent of Emír Bokhárí, as well as the mosque of Ghalatah-seráï, were built by him. May God reward all his pious works! His conquests are as follows: The castles of Motón and Korón, Arkáriyah, Kalámitah, Kalávertah, Holómích, Tiribólíchah (Tripolizza), Bállí-Bádrah (Palæ Patræ, i.e. Patras), and Anávárín (Navarino), in the year 906 (1500-1). All the above castles are in the southern and western parts of the Peninsula (Morea). He also conquered the castle of Ainah-bakhtí (Naupaktus or Lepanto), A.H. 905 (A.D. 1499, 1500). The fortresses of Kilì and Ak-kirmán were taken in the 889 (A.D. 1484). The castles Várnah, Avlóniyah, and in Arnáútluk (Albania) Durráj (Durazzo), were captured, and a tribute imposed upon Karah Boghdán (Moldavia), in the year 918 (A.D. 1512). After having conquered these and many other castles, he was defeated in a second engagement with his son Selím I., at Chórló (Τούρουλος or Τζορλοῦ), where he was deserted by all his servants, who followed Selím to Islámból and proclaimed him Emperor. Báyazíd Khán was immediately ordered to retire to Dímah-tókah (Dymóticho for Didymótichon); but having reached Hávusah, a small town one days journey distant from Edreneh (Adrianople), died there. Various reports were circulated respecting the cause of his death. Some say that he died sighing, and crying out, “O King Jem!” Others, that having been poisoned by his son, he exclaimed, “May thy life be short, but thy victories many!” His corpse was buried within the precincts of his mosque. He reigned thirty-three years, and was succeeded by his son Selím I., who began his victorious course by a signal defeat of Sháh Ismá’íl, King of Írán, on the plains of Cheldir, beneath the castle of Ak hichkah, where 200,000 Kizil-báshes (Persians) were put to the sword. The Sháh himself escaped with difficulty, accompanied by only seven horsemen, and his Queen Tájlí Khánum was taken prisoner, together with three hundred female captives, who were entrusted to the care of the Defterdár Tájir-zádeh Ja’fer Chelebí, and conducted by him to the threshold of Felicity (the Sublime Porte). In this victorious campaign the following castles were conquered:—Kars, Ak-hichkah, Erdehán, Hasan, Erz Rúm, Baïbúd, Iánijah, Kumákh, Karah-Hamíd, Diyár-Bekr, and forty other castles with their dependencies. Sultán ’Aláu-d-daulah, of the Zúl-kadriyyeh family, Lord of Mer’ash, was also defeated and killed, and his head, together with those of seventy other great chiefs (Bóï Beg), was sent to Ghaurí, Sultán of Egypt, against whom a campaign was immediately commenced: in the course of which Súltán Selím conquered Halebu-sh-shuhbá (the bright), with its twenty, Shám (Damascus), with its forty-two castles; Tarábulu-Shám (Tripoli), with its seventy castles, occupied by the Durúzí (Druzes); Beïtu-l-mokaddas (Jerusalem), Ghazah, and Ramlah, with seventeen castles. In that paradisiacal country, Shám (Syria), he took up his winter-quarters; and in the ensuing year he fought, on the plain of Kákún, the great battle in which Sultán Ghaúrí was routed and slain. The wreck of the army of the Cherákis (Circassians) fled to Misr (Caïro), with Selím Khán at their heels; and after one continued battle for a whole month, the province of Misr (Egypt), with its three hundred cities and seven thousand villages, was given up to the conqueror in the year 922 (A.D. 1516). Híreh Beg was appointed Governor of Misr (Caïro); and Kemàl Páshà-zádeh Ahmed Efendí, Military Judge. Possession was taken of Mekkah and Medínah, and Selím assumed the title of Servant of the two noble Mosques, and exalted his victories to the skies. On his returning to Islámból, he laid the foundation of the mosque which bears his name, but did not live to finish it. He was buried in the kubbeh, opposite the Mihráb. He was born in Tarabefzún (for Tarábuzún, i.e. Trebizonde), of which he was Governor while a Prince. He reigned nine years, during which the Khotbah was said in his name in one thousand and one mosques. He was succeeded by his son, the determined supporter of the faith, and the breaker of the heads of the people who contemplated rebellion, the tenth of the Sultáns of the house of ’Osmán, Sultán Suleïmán Khán el Ghází, who finished the mosque begun by his father.

Description of the Mosque of Sultán Selím I.

He began it as a monument to the illustrious memory of his father, in the year 927 (A.D. 1521), and finished it in the year 933 (A.D. 1527). It is a lofty mosque, in the interior of Islámból, on the summit of one of the hills which overlook the canal; but it has no fine columns within it like the other mosques. It is only an elevated dome supported by four walls, but such as to raise the admiration of all who are masters in mathematics, and to be pointed at as a proof of the great skill of the old architect Sinán. On examining it, all mathematicians are astonished; for its dome is found, on admeasurement, to be one span wider than that of Ayá Sófiyah. It appears, in truth, to be an azure vault, like the vault of the sky; but is not so high as that of Ayá Sófiyah, since it measures only fifty-eight builder’s cubits in height. The cause of its not having been made more lofty, is the elevation of the hill upon which it stands. On the right side of its precincts (harem) there is a deep cistern, made in the time of the infidels; and on the north side is the ascent called the Forty Stairs, though there are fifty-four steps. The declivity on each side is very steep and precipitous; the architect Sinán, therefore, with a prudent foresight, in order to avoid all risk from earthquakes, gave a very moderate height to the mosque. The platform (mahfil) for the Muëzzins is placed upon marble columns, adjoining to the wall on the right hand; the Minber and Mihráb are of white marble, in a plain style. On the left side of the mosque there is a gallery supported by columns for the use of the Emperor: this was enclosed like a cage, with a gilt grating, by Sultán Ibráhim. Round the cupola there is a gallery where lamps are lighted on the blessed nights. The mosque is ornamented with some thousand trophies suspended around it, but has no other distinction on the inside. Opposite to the windows on the side of the Mihráb, is the sepulchre of Selím Khán, in a delightful garden, where the sweet notes of nightingales are heard. It is a hexagonal building, surmounted by a cupola. This mosque has three gates, of which that looking towards the Kiblah is always open. On the right and left of the mosque there are hostels for travellers; and there are also, on the right and left side, two minárehs, with one gallery each; but they are not so high as other minárehs. The court of the mosque (harem) is paved with white marble, has three gates, and stone benches (soffahs) all round. There is a basin in the centre of the court, which constantly supplies the Muselmán congregation with fresh and running water for their ablutions. Sultán Murád IV. placed a pointed dome over it, supported by eight columns, and there are four cypresses on the different sides of it. Outside of this court is a large enclosure (harem), planted with trees of various kinds, and entered by three gates. On the south (Kiblah) is the gate of the mausoleum (Turbeh); on the west, that of the market; on the north, that of the Forty Stairs. Below the market, looking towards the Chukúr Bóstán there is a large school for boys, a public refectory (Mehmán-seráï), and lodgings for men of learning and students. The bath (hammám) is three hundred paces beyond this enclosure; but there are no other colleges nor hospitals.

Description of the Fifth Imperial Mosque; that of Sultán Suleïmán.

It was begun in the year 950 (A.D. 1543), and finished in the year——, and is beyond all description beautiful. The learned, who composed the metrical inscriptions, containing the date of its erection, confess that they are not able duly to express its praise; a task which I, the contemptible Evliyà, am now striving to perform as far as my ability will allow. This incomparable mosque was built by Sultán Suleïmán on one-half of the unoccupied half of the summit of the lofty hill on which had been erected, by Mohammed II, the old Seráï. Suleïmán having assembled all the thousands of perfect masters in architecture, building, stone-hewing, and marble-cutting, who were found in the dominions of the house of ’Osmán, three whole years were employed in laying the foundations. The workmen penetrated so far into the earth, that the sound of their pickaxes was heard by the bull that bears up the world at the bottom of the earth. In three more years the foundations reached the face of the earth; but in the ensuing year the building was suspended, and the workmen were employed in sawing and cutting various-coloured stones for the building above the foundations. In the following year the Mihráb was fixed in the same manner as that of Sultán Báyazíd’s mosque; and the walls, which reached the vault of heaven, were completed, and on those four solid foundations they placed its lofty dome. This vast structure of azure stone is more circular than the cupola of Ayá Sófiyah, and is seven royal cubits high. Besides the square piers which support it, there are, on the right and left sides, four porphyry columns, each of which is worth ten times the amount of the tribute (Kharáj) from Misr. These columns were brought from the capital of Misr, along the Nile, to Iskanderiyyeh, and there embarked on rafts, by Karinjeh Kapúdán, who in due time landed them at Ún-kapání; and having removed them from thence to the square called Vefà-méïdán, in the neighbourhood of the Suleïmániyyeh, delivered them up to Suleïmán Khán; expressing his wish that they might be received as a tribute from Karinjah (i.e. the Ant), just as a gift was graciously received from the Queen of Ants by Solomon. The Emperor, to shew his gratitude, immediately settled upon him the Sanjaks of Yilánlí-jezíreh-sí, and the island of Ródós. God knows, that four such columns of red porphyry, each fifty cubits high, are to be found no where else in the world. On the side next to the Mihráb, and on that opposite to it, the dome is joined by two semi-domes, which do not, however, rest on those columns, as the architect was afraid of overloading them. Sinán opened windows on every side to give light to the mosque. Those over the Mihráb and Minber are filled with coloured glass, the brilliance of whose colours within, and the splendour of the light reflected from them at noon, dazzle the eyes of the beholders, and fill them with astonishment. Each window is adorned with some hundreds of thousands of small pieces of glass, which represent either flowers, or the letters forming the excellent names (i.e. the Divine attributes); they are, therefore, celebrated by travellers all over the world. Though the Mihráb, Minber, and Mahfil of the Muëzzins are only formed of plain white marble, yet the last is of such exquisite workmanship, that it seems to be the Mahfil of Paradise; the Minber is also made of plain marble, but is surmounted by a conical tiara-like canopy, the like of which is no where to be found; and the Mihráb is like that of his Majesty Solomon himself. Above it there is engraved in letters of gold, on an azure ground, from the hand-writing of Karah-hisárí, this text of the Korán (iii. 32), “Whenever Zakariyyà (Zacharias) went into the chamber (mihráb) to her.” On the right and left of the Mihráb there are spirally-twisted columns, which appear like the work of magic. There are also candlesticks of a mans stature, made of pure brass, and gilt with pure gold, which hold candles of camphorated bees’-wax, each 20 kantárs (quintals) in weight. The ascent to each of them is by a wooden staircase of fifteen steps, and they are lighted every night. In the left corner of the mosque is a gallery (mahfil) raised on columns, for the private use of the Sultán; and it also contains a special Mihráb. Besides this gallery, there are four others, one on each of the large piers, for the readers of the lessons from the Korán. On both sides of the mosque there are benches (soffahs), supported by low columns, and outside of it, parallel with these benches within, galleries, supported on columns, one of which looks upon the sea, and the other on the market. When the mosque is very much crowded, many persons perform their devotions on these benches. There are also, round the cupola, within the mosque, two rows of galleries supported by columns, which, on the blessed nights, are lighted with lamps. The total number of the lamps is 22,000; and there are likewise some thousands of other ornaments suspended from the roof. There are windows on all the four sides of the mosque, through each of which refreshing breezes enter and revive the congregation; so that they seem to be enjoying eternal life in Paradise. This mosque is also, by the will of God, constantly perfumed by an excellent odour, which gives fragrance to the brain of man, but has no resemblance to the odour of earthly flowers. Within the mosque, beside the southern gate (kibleh), there are two piers, from each of which springs a fountain of pure water, in order to quench the thirst of the congregation; and in the upper part of the building there are certain cells for the purpose of keeping treasures, in which the great people of the country and some thousands of travellers keep their money, to an amount which the Great Creator alone knows!

In Praise of the Writing of Karah Hisárí.

There never has been to this day, nor ever will be, any writing which can compare with that of Ahmed Karah Hisárí, outside and inside of this mosque. In the centre of the dome there is this text of the Korán (xxiv. 35): “God is the light of heaven and earth; the similitude of his light is as a niche in a wall wherein a lamp is placed, and the lamp enclosed in a case of glass:” a text justly called the Text of Light, which has been here rendered more luminous by the brilliant hand which inscribed it. The inscription over the semi-dome, above the Mihráb, has been already given. On the opposite side, above the southern gate, there is this text (vi. 79): “I direct my face unto him who hath created the heavens and the earth: I am orthodox.” On the four piers are written, “Allah, Mohammed, Abú Bekr, ’Omar, ’Osmán, ’Alí, Hasan, and Hoseïn. Over the window to the right of the Minber: “Verily, places of worship belong to God; therefore, invoke not any one together with God.” Besides this, over the upper windows, all the excellent names (of God) are written. These are in the Shikáfí hand; but the large writing in the cupola is in the Guzáfí hand, of which the Láms, Elifs, and Káfs, each measure ten ells; so that they can be read distinctly by those who are below. This mosque has five doors. On the right, the Imám’s (Imám kapú-sí); on the left the Vezír’s (Vezír kapú-sí), beneath the imperial gallery, and two side doors. Over that on the left is written (Kor. xiii. 24), “Peace be upon you, because ye have endured with patience! How excellent a reward is Paradise!” Over the opposite gate this text: “Peace be upon you! Ye are righteous; enter in and dwell in it for ever!” Beneath this inscription, on the left hand, is added, “This was written by the Fakír Karah Hisárí.”

Description of the Court (Harem).

The court of this mosque has three gates, to which there is an ascent and descent by three flights of steps. It is paved with white marble, and is as smooth and level as a carpet. Though very spacious, the body of the mosque is still larger. Round its four sides there are benches (soffahs) of stone, forty feet broad, upon which columns of coloured stones rest, supporting arches of different hues, as various as those of the rainbow. The windows of this court are guarded by iron gratings, the bars of which are as thick as a man’s arm, and so finely polished, that even now not an atom of rust is seen upon them, and they shine like steel of Nakhjuván. In the centre of this court there is a beautiful fountain worthy of admiration, but it is not calculated for ablutions, being only designed for the refreshment of the congregation. Its roof is a low, broad, leaden cupola; but the wonderful thing is this, that the water from the basin springs up as though shot from a bow, to the centre of the cupola, and then trickles down its sides like another Selsebíl. It is, indeed, a wonderful spectacle. Over the windows on each side of this court there are texts from the Korán inscribed in white letters on blue tiles. The door opposite to the kibleh (i.e. the north door) is the largest of all; it is of white marble, and has not its equal on earth for the beauty and skill with which it is carved and ornamented. It is all built of pure white marble, and the different blocks have been so skilfully joined together by the builders that it is impossible to perceive any crevice between them. Over the sill of the door there are sculptured flowers and festoons of filagree work, interlaced with each other with a skill rivalling the art of Jemshíd. On each side of this gate there are buildings four-stories high, containing chambers for the muvakkits (hour-cryers), porters, and sextons. At the entrance of this gate there is a large circular block of red porphyry, which is unparalleled for its size and the fineness of its polish. It is as large as a Mohammedan simát (i.e. dinner-tray). Within the gate, on the right side of the court, there is a square slab of porphyry, on which a cross was sculptured, the traces of which are still visible, though it was erased by the masons. The infidels offered a million of money for it in vain: at length a royal ball was fired from a galleon of the infidels, lying before Ghalatah, purposely at this slab, which was struck; but being on the ground, it received no damage. So that the infidels, with all their rancour, and skill in gunnery, could not break this stone, which had become a threshold of the Suleïmániyyeh; but the mark of the ball still remains, and raises the astonishment of all beholders.