the present Sultan — State of learning — Public libraries —
Turkish taste — Coals — Greek printing-house — Navy — Return
to England._
When I arrived at Constantinople there was a considerable alarm
raised by the progress of the arms of _Paswân Oglo_, Pasha of
Wîddîn. Originally Aga of that city, that is, chief of the
Janizaries and commandant, he formed a powerful opposition to the
Pasha, consisting of many rich and eminent inhabitants, who were
dissatisfied with the Pasha’s conduct. By numerous intrigues
and disputes the latter was gradually deprived of his authority,
and Paswân Oglo usurped his place. After the last Russian war,
the Porte being much in want of money, had recourse to new and
unpopular measures of finance. Taxes were for the first time imposed
on articles of consumption, as grain and wine. Paswân availed himself
of the discontents occasioned by these impositions, and as his power
increased boasted that he would correct such abuses.
The Porte, following its usual policy of rewarding where it cannot
punish, of decorating the head which it wishes to strike off,
confirmed Paswân in the Pashalik. His military force at first did not
exceed four or five thousand, but, by the influx of the discontented,
was now swelled to fifteen thousand or more, of enthusiastic and
determined followers. Most of them consisted of the Janizaries on
that side of Romélia, who were extremely dissatisfied at having
passed unrewarded after the brilliant actions they had performed
against the Austrian arms, and at the encouragement given to the
recently established corps of Fusileers, an innovation which stung
their ancient prejudices.
The Aga of the Janizaries at Constantinople, being consulted on
the suppression of the rebellion, gave his opinion, that there was
danger lest the Janizaries should go over to their brethren. The
Diwân assembled in great perplexity, all were irresolute, till the
Capitan-pasha, Hussein, said, “Nothing can be more easy than to
crush this rebel.” The members instantly retorted, that if it were
so easy, why not undertake that duty himself. Hussein exclaimed,
“Only give me the means, and I pledge myself to conduct them!”
He was in consequence appointed, and abundant supplies of men and
money were assigned. Instead of Janizaries, the Timariots or feudal
troops of Asia were summoned. Before I left Turkey a slight skirmish
had taken place. The troops which marched against Wîddîn were
computed at one hundred and fifty thousand. Paswân Oglo, unable
to meet such a multitude in the field, was contented to defend
Wîddîn. His success and further progress are sufficiently known.
A new institution had been recently ordained by the reigning
Sultan. Perceiving that his troops had been unable to oppose those
of Russia, he had, with the assistance of the French, who supplied
non-commissioned officers to instruct them, founded a regular corps
of infantry, consisting of about one thousand. They were clothed
in a tighter dress, and their arms[63] supplied by government. The
French have also assisted the Turks in casting a great number of
brass field-pieces and battering cannon; nor are they without some
flying artillery.
The present Sultan is not deficient in discernment, or warm wishes
to promote the happiness of his people; but through the usual
imperfection of his education, he is the slave of his own impetuosity,
and a stranger to the recesses of the human heart. His motives
are generally right, but the means, opposed by popular prejudices,
are often ineffectual.
Sultan Selim, after correcting the police of the capital, turned
his beneficent views to the encouragement of learning among his
subjects. He has revived the mathematical school, in which, however,
small progress had been made; his ignorance of the world leading him
to think that his orders can form minds, and that a pension confers
capacity. He has restored the printing office, and a new Arabic type
was casting by an ingenious Armenian. But whether the improvement of
the type may contribute to the diffusion of solid knowlege among the
Turks, may fairly be questioned. The first book ordered to be printed
was a Persian dictionary. An engraver on copper is also settled here,
the subjects are the armillary sphere, some plans of fortification,
the box-compass, and the like.
The Turks are remarkable for half-measures. In the mathematical
and marine school, a substantial and commodious building, they
are furnished with every thing—except instruments and books; the
class small or none; but the end of the institution is considered
as completely answered, as there are professors who meet and smoke
their pipes together.
There are several _Kuttub-chans_, or public libraries, among which
the principal are those of St. Sophia and the Solimanié Jamasy;
but none so elegant as that built by Raghib Pasha, formerly Grand
Wizîr. The magnificent institutions of this great man being envied by
the Sultan of the day, his head was the forfeit of his virtues. This
library is an insulated building, in the middle of a square court,
consisting entirely of marble, and very neat and convenient. A
large tomb, decorated with gilt brass, in which Raghib Pasha is
buried, forms the centre of the library. Around are numerous books,
on all subjects, chiefly as usual theology; convenient seats and
elegant carpets and cushions for the readers. A librarian constantly
attends. The light is well disposed, and the place perfectly quiet;
so that I have no where seen a building or institution more complete
of the kind. The apartment is raised above the ground by seven or
eight easy steps. Fronting the street there is a school, founded by
the same Pasha. It is a convenient room, of thirty-five feet long
and proportionate width, where about an hundred boys are taught to
read and write, and the more simple part of their theology. There is
only one class, which attends every day for two hours in the morning
and two in the afternoon.
I met with a Mohammedan, a native of _Balk_, who understood the first
six books of Euclid. A young Englishman, who has embraced Islamism,
and is lately established at Constantinople, had translated Euclid
into Turkish, and published an astronomical ephemeris. Having
received some encouragement, he was proceeding to read lectures
on mathematical subjects. Many scribes are found here who write
elegantly and correctly.
The national taste does not seem rapidly to improve. One of the
Sultanas, sisters of the monarch, has not long since built a villa
on the Bosphorus, half in the European style, half in the Chinese.
There is a considerable market for books, containing many shops,
well supplied.
Strata of coals are found at about four hours distance on the European
side. An officer in the service of the Porte informed me that he had
at first obtained the exclusive right of working them. He sent them
to the Crimea. Since that time better coals having been found in that
country, and the right of working them having been soon afterwards
taken from him, the mine was neglected, and then discontinued. It
was difficult to work on account of the sandy soil which fell in. He
said he could sell them at Constantinople for a para the oke.
Went to a Greek printing-house conducted by an Armenian. They were
printing a small exhortation in the Greek language, written by
Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, against the prevailing tenets of
Deism and Atheism. They throw off about a thousand sheets a day.
The navy has of late been greatly improved by Le Brun and other
French ship-builders. On the 2d of April 1798 there were eight ships
of war at anchor in the Bosphorus; three seventy-fours, four fifties,
one forty. The whole navy amounts to fifteen ships, fit for service,
and of considerable force.
The Turkish women, in fine weather, ape the European custom of taking
the air in their carriages, in a great square; but they are concealed
in small latticed waggons, and veiled. They thus lose the best part
of the display, “the mighty pleasure of being seen.”
I shall close my remarks on Constantinople with observing, that
the country between it and Adrianople is completely plain, and that
the capital is, on the land side, incapable of any defence against
a victorious army. The uncertainty of the winds and channels join
with the forts to defend the other side from any sudden assault.
Proceeding through Wallachia to Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Leipsic,
Potsdam, Berlin, and Hamburg, I arrived in London on the 16th of
September, 1798, after an absence of nearly seven years.
CHAP. XXIX.
_Comparative view of life and happiness in the East and in Europe._
—_Et qui plus est, il me semble que je n’ay rencontré guere de
manieres, qui ne vaillent les nostres._ MONTAIGNE.
The great contrast which is observable between the manners and
personal character of the Orientals and Europeans, insensibly leads
to a comparison of its result in society. The character of every
nation merits the attention of the philosopher; and the less that
nation resembles ourselves, the more its distinguishing features
require our investigation.
While vanity instigates us to claim an undisputed superiority,
experience often compels us to doubt the validity of the sentence
on which we insist. We are fearful of being reduced to acknowlege,
that the labour, the thought, the agitation which have place among
us, often augment not the happiness of the individual, and are of
doubtful utility to the collective body. It is not however designed
to insist on any such concession; and only a few considerations
shall be offered in the order that they arise.
—Animo satis hæc vestigia parva sagaci
Sunt, per quæ possis cognoscere cætera tutè.
LUCRETIUS.
Impatience, activity, and sanguine hope, are habits of an European. By
education his imagination is exalted and his ideas are multiplied. By
reading, and frequent intercourse with foreigners, he is enabled
to present to himself the state of distant times and remote
nations. Their knowlege, their arts, their pleasures become familiar
to him; and, from a fixed principle of the human mind, the lively
idea of all these advantages generates the hope of appropriating
them. His first attempt is haply crowned with success, and he is
thus stimulated to farther effort: but as the bounds fixed to his
attainments are removed the farther he advances, and improvement is
infinite, his ultimate disappointment is inevitable, and it is felt
with a poignancy proportioned to the confidence of his first hopes.
The habits of the Oriental, on the contrary, are indolence, gravity,
patience. His ideas are few in number; and his sentiments in course
equally rare. They are, however, generally correct, springing from the
objects around him, and for the most part limited to those objects.
A chief cause of this contrast, must be the mode of education in
each community. Education should be the art of forming man on the
principles of nature; by due attention to her unerring progress,
no advantage of life can remain unimproved, and no duty can be
misunderstood. But in no nation with whose history we are acquainted,
has such a system been established. Almost every one forms its
disciples on the narrow views of that community, and nature is
distorted and paralised by authority.
The leading fault of education in the various parts of the Turkish
empire, originates in the prevailing superstition. Wherever this
does not operate, the practice is sufficiently rational.
The children of the Arabs early attain the character of manhood. A
grave demeanour, fortitude in suffering, respect for age,
filial affection, contempt for frivolous amusements, frugality,
temperance, hospitality, are taught in the easiest and most
effectual manner—by example; and where there is least probability
of counter-instruction—in the house of the father.
They are early taken out of the hands of women, and sent to study the
Korân; an employment which indeed has only the negative advantage of
saving a portion of their time from positive idleness. As they advance
towards maturity, little coercion is employed, but no incitement is
administered to error. The father gradually accustoms himself to
treat his son on the footing of an equal; who, on the other hand,
seldom forgets the respect which is not imperiously exacted.
The dress of children is free from ligatures, their diet simple,
and they are accustomed to variations of season, and enured
to fatigue. These are a part of the advantages of Oriental
education. Among its more serious inconveniences may be enumerated,
an excessive credulity, the offspring of profound ignorance, and a
keenness bordering on dishonesty and falshood. It is not easy to gain
knowlege which is not sought. The boy respects his father, and the
summit of his ambition is to imitate his sire. The parent is guided
chiefly by the reflection, how far he may extend his pursuit of gain
with impunity; of course a very refined morality is not to be expected
from the son. Happiness once confined to the small circle of a family,
little anxiety remains for the world at large. Hence the faintness
of the conception of a community, and the duties arising from it.
In Europe, education is the art of moulding the soul to the times;
and the preceptor is commonly successful in conveying the instruction,
of which experience has taught him the advantage, and which he is
no stranger to the mode of applying. Advancement is the object;
and to obtain it activity is required. This end is gained; but in
the art of directing the powers of his mind to the attainment of
his own happiness, or to the public utility, or of preserving his
body sane and vigorous, the man remains still a child; and thus the
true object of education is frustrated. We have on this head then,
it would seem, no great reason to boast our superiority.
The distinctive character of a nation is not to be sought in great
cities. The manners of these reciprocally approximate. In that part
of Egypt where the character of women is unsophisticated by mixture,
however strong their passions, they are not unchaste. This perhaps
proceeds more from the influence of public opinion, than the sanctions
of municipal law.
Among the people, as they are to take part in domestic duties, their
education is bounded by the useful. Among the opulent it extends to
the ornamental, and many females in Kahira are taught to read and
write. Instead of complaining of their seclusion as an injury, they
may sometimes be observed tenacious of it as a mark of respect. That
seclusion, though originating in the real or supposed licentiousness
of the sex, is, at this time, far from being the effect of individual
jealousy, but by long adoption, become a part of bien-séance. “I
consented to become your wife,” said a woman to her husband,
in my hearing, “that I might be veiled or private, _masturê_,
and remain tranquil in my family; not to be sent to the market,
to meet the eyes of _chalk-illah_, all the world.”
This seclusion of women has an important effect in society; and the
Orientals are accordingly, as has often been remarked, in a great
degree strangers to the passion of _love_. It is thought indecent in
company to speak much of women, and no man would venture to declare,
that he had a preference for a particular woman, or intended to
marry her.
Social intercourse is thus rendered less vivacious and amusing,
but numberless inquietudes are avoided. They who affirm, however,
that nothing is sought from women, among the people of the East,
but sensual gratification, seem to err. Why should a man, by having
several women, necessarily become insensible to what is amiable or
estimable in any individual among them? Or is individual character
rendered absolutely indistinct by their being associated together?
They are equally in error who assert, that women in the East are
slaves. Perhaps it might correctly be said that they are treated
as children; but, supposing this to be true, do not tenderness and
affection operate towards children?
They hold not the same rank as in Europe; and if they did, the
intrigues carried on in the _harem_, would render their husbands
and themselves miserable. In their present state, accidents of this
kind are not without ill effects, but, in general, serve rather
to minister a cause of diversion, than to produce any very serious
evil. Of course they give much less disturbance than in Europe.
The spirit of Chivalry, fostered by the Crusades, changed, in the
heated imagination of the youthful hero, the lovely object of his
desires, into a deity that was to be adored. The visible nature of
the divinity fanned the flame of devotion. Whether the fair benignly
smiled, or scornfully averted her countenance from the humble
votary, her perfections were equally the subject of his eulogies,
and her will of his propitiation. But all his services were sublimely
disinterested, and were to remain without hope of remuneration, till
giants should be immolated to her perfections, and widows and orphans
chaunt forth in her presence the praises of their generous deliverer.
These chaste amours, in which all was elevated, and all exquisitely
unnatural, according to modern ideas, were yet the foundation of the
rank women hold in modern Europe. This system, forced and contrary
to nature, could not long have place, and perhaps the sex itself
grew satiated with the frigid adulation of distant votaries, however
flattering to its vanity. A more licentious gallantry then took place,
and the charm was quickly dissolved. The intercourse between the sexes
being at length reduced to the simple gratification of the sensual
desire, society was almost in the same state in the West, as in the
East, at the period when the seclusion of females first took place.
But the Europeans adopted a different plan. They either despised the
security of bolts and bars as ineffectual, or too much of their former
respect yet remained to allow the attempt. The sex at length wearied,
but not satiated with simple sensuality, was governed in the choice of
its indulgences by caprice; and the men were studiously employed to
attract the æillades of their mistresses, and to chain this fickle
sentiment, by varied foppery and grimace. Hence the romantic tales
of our novels, hence the inconsequential conduct of their heroes,
and hence the agitations of our societies, at which the Orientals
would smile.
It is not said, that the miseries and violent dissensions which
exist in families, result from the rank females hold in European
society. Eternal litigations, and all the confusion of severe laws
and loose morals are not attributed to that cause. It is only hinted
that these evils are coëtaneous with that state of society, and that
the pure institution of matrimony may be enforced by the commanding
voice of religion, and sanctioned by municipal law, yet those evils
may remain without a remedy.
The young of each sex are, in Europe, brought together, and taught
to attach themselves to each other: but interdicted from uniting,
unless equal in rank, fortune, &c. Passion however is strongest at
an early age, when the reason which should guide it is weakest. But
the public institutions eternize the punishment of a momentary
folly. Parental authority, at other times, interferes, and pretending
only solicitude for the child’s happiness, renders both the parent
and the offspring miserable.
The husband is vain of exhibiting in public his admired bride. From
familiarities with a variety of men which, by being public,
are authorized, she is induced to try them in private. The man
becomes unhappy and ridiculous, the wife disgraced, and the lover
impoverished. Little or nothing of this is known in the East.
Another striking dissimilitude between the Europeans and Orientals
is observable in the number and quality of their respective laws,
and the administration of public justice. Though a multitude of
commentaries has been written on the simple maxims contained in the
Korân, applying them to the particular cases which occur in society,
the whole falls far short, in point of extent, of the most simple
systems of jurisprudence with which we are acquainted. The single
circumstance of each man being advocate in his own cause, contracts
all judicial proceedings to a small compass, and, whether justly
or unjustly, all legal disputes are speedily terminated. So that no
man can bequeath to his family the inheritance of judicial ruin.
It will no doubt be thought, that the corrupt character of judges,
and the sale of their decrees, are evils for which no advantages
can compensate; and here, at least, it may be urged, that in Europe
the administration of justice is more equal, and the right is not
generally to be shaken by a bribe.
On the other hand, whatever may be the integrity of the judges in
their decisions, the length and delay of the proceedings is sufficient
to re-produce all the evils which are thought to be obviated by the
absence of judicial corruption. If one of the parties be poor and the
other rich, the latter commonly has the option of ruining the former
by throwing impediments in the way of a decision; and it is of little
importance to a man to know that he is ultimately victorious, when his
property is already consumed, ere the cause draw near its termination.
But independently of the immense expense of a process in most
countries of Europe, the anxiety and suspense while it is depending,
tend to lessen the happiness of society, and are, by their frequency,
serious evils.
Domestic manners furnish a more minute, but not unimportant
contrast. In receiving strangers at his house and when they leave
it, the Oriental testifies no great emotion. The visitor is welcomed
rather by actions than words. An Arab or Turk having once accorded
protection, which he does with a kind of distance and hauteur, never
afterwards withdraws it, and his word may be relied on. In visiting,
as is well known, the common but absurd practice, which obtains among
ourselves, of urging those to stay longer, of whose company one is
already tired, is obviated by the simple use of a little scented
wood in a censer.
In their communications every thing tends rather to tranquillize the
mind, than to excite the passions. The quarrels of the mere mob,
indeed, evaporate in idle vociferation; but among persons of any
breeding, the voice is scarcely ever raised above its ordinary tone.
The greatest number of menials in a family (and in the East they are
very numerous) occasions no confusion. All is conducted in silence
and order. All such directions as are in the common routine of
affairs, are given by signs, and are instantly understood; not from
pride, or as implying the vast distance between master and servant,
but principally to avoid all _equivoque_, when persons of various
descriptions are present, and, by making secresy a uniform habit,
to avoid all suspicion from the adoption of mystery in giving orders
before company, when any thing is to be said which it is not intended
that company should hear.
The ingenuity of man in contriving his own unhappiness, is in no part
of the world more conspicuous than in Europe. Our mutual intercourse
is so beset with forms, that it becomes doubtful whether it be a good
or an evil; and the individual, not unfrequently, leaves a company
dissatisfied that he ever entered into it. Hence a continued desire
of changing place and forming new acquaintance.
Whenever a number of persons meet together, eating and drinking
seem to be a necessary bond of union; and they often do not separate
without that kind of festivity which impairs the health of each, and
creates dissensions, as it were, by its mechanical operation. The
sole benefit which results from the social meals of the Arabs, is
to us entirely unknown.—No man thinks himself incapacitated from
injuring his neighbour, in consequence of having divided with him
a loaf of bread, and a little salt, at the convivial board.