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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58003	The present state of the Ottoman Empire containing the maxims of the Turkish politie, the most material points of the Mahometan religion, their sects and heresies, their convents and religious votaries, their military discipline ... : illustrated with divers pieces of sculpture, representing the variety of habits amongst the Turks, in three books / by Paul Rycaut Esq. ...	Rycaut, Paul, Sir, 1628-1700.	1668 (1668)	Wing R2413; ESTC R18075	228,446	228

Sultan Mahomet Han the present Emperour of the Turkes aged 23 yeares Anno 1666 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE Ottoman Empire Containing the MAXIMS of the TURKISH POLITIE The most material Points of the MAHOMETAN RELIGION Their SECTS and HERESIES their CONVENTS and RELIGIOUS Votaries THEIR MILITARY DISCIPLINE With an exact Computation of their FORCES both by LAND and SEA Illustrated with divers Pieces of Sculpture representing the variety of Habits amongst the Turks IN THREE BOOKS By PAUL RYCAUT Esq Secretary to his Excellency the Earl of Winchilsea Embassador Extraordinary for his Majesty Charles the Second c. to Sultan Mahomet Han the Fourth Emperour of the Turks LONDON Printed for John Starkey and Henry Brome at the Mitre between the Middle-Temple-Gate and Temple-Bar in Fleet-street and the Star in Little-Britain 1668. To the Right Honourable HENRY Lord ARLINGTON His Majesties Principal Secretary of State My Lord AFter five years residence at Constantinople in service of the Embassy of the Earl of Winchilsea my ever honoured Lord and this my second journey from thence by land into my own Country I judged it a point of my Duty and of my Religion too to dedicate this following Treatise as the fruits of my Travels Negotiations and leisure in those remote parts to the Noble Person of your Lordship as that Votiva Tabula which many both in ancient and in the modern times after some signal deliverance or happy arrival at their desired Port use to offer to their Gods their Saints or their Patrons And truly my Lord this Discourse treating chiefly of the Turkish Policy Government and Maxims of State seems naturally to appertain to the Patronage of your Lordship whose faculties of Wisdom and Vertue have given you the Blessing of your Princes Favour and the Reputation as well abroad as at home of an Eminent and Dexterous Minister of State It were a great Presumption in me to offer any Observations of my own in the Courts of Christian Princes to the test of your Lordships Experience and Judgment who not only is acquainted with the Customs and Manners but penetrates into the Designs and knows the Cabinet Councels of Neighbouring Principalities with whom our divided world may possibly be concerned but perhaps without disparagement to your Lordships profound Wisdom or over-value of my own abilities I may confidently draw a rude Scheme before your Lordship of the Turkish Government Policies and Customs a Subject which Travellers have rather represented to their Country-men to supply them with discourse and admiration than as a matter worthythe consideration or concernment of our Kings or our Governors It hath been the happy fortune of the Turk to be accounted barbarous and ignorant for upon this perswasion Christian Princes have laid themselves open and unguarded to their greatest danger contending together for one Palm of land whilst this puissant Enemy hath made himself master of whole Provinces and largely shared in the rich and pleasant possessions of Europe This contempt of the Turk on one side caused the Emperour to be so backward in opposing that torrent of the Ottoman Force which in the first year of the late War broke in upon him and the suspition of designs from France on the other altered the Resolutions and Councels of the Emperour for prosecution of the War which then running favourably on the Christian part was no less than with the astonishment of the whole world and of the Turks themselves on a sudden understood to be clapt up with Articles of a disadvantageous Peace admiring to see the Emperour give a stop to the current of his Victories and relinquish the Game with a lucky hand But this will seem no riddle to those who penetrate Affairs with the same judgment that your Lordship doth and consider the unfirm condition the House of Austria was in by a daily expectation of the death or fall of so main a Basis of it as the King of Spain and the division amongst the Princes of the Empire the League of the Rhine the French practices to make the Duke of Enguyen King of Poland and the extravagant demands of the French and Rhinish League for Winter quarters and places of strength not only in Hungary but also in Styria and the adjacent places and at the same time look on the Factions in Hungary and a considerable Army of French in the bowels of Germany who were supposed in those parts to have rather come with design to over-awe the next Diet and force the German Princes to elect the French King for King of the Romans than with sincere and simple intentions of opposing themselves to the Enemy of the Faith for then it will appear that the best use the Emperor could make of his good success was moderation in Victory and reconciliation with his powerful Enemy And hereupon Earl Leisle being dispatched for Extraordinary Embassador from his Imperial Majesty to the Grand Signior though the Turk was elevated with the thoughts of the necessity the Christians had of a Peace did yet so happily manage his Charge and Employment as created in the Turks an extraordinary reverence towards his Person and obtained such Honours and Treatments from them as the Turkish Court never bestowed before on the Emperors or any other Christian Embassador extorting this Complement from the great Vizier That he was more satisfied the Emperor had sent so brave and illustrious a person than if he had sought to reconcile his Affections with a hundred thousand Dollars more of Present And to do justice to this worthy Person he hath brought a reputation to the British Nation above any in our age whose vertues and industry have acquired the highest Trusts and Preferments in Forreign Parts and done the same honour to his King under whom he was born a Subject as to the present Emperor and his Ancestors under whom he is and hath alwaies been a faithful Minister having deserved so eminently for saving the whole German Empire from the Treason of Wallestein by his own single act of bravery a story notoriously known to all the world as can never in gratitude be forgot by that Nation nor want its due Record and place in the History of that Country The speculation of what is contained in this following Discourse may seem unworthy of your Lordships precious hours in regard of that notion of Barbarity with which this Empire is stiled yet the knowledge hereof will be like a Turquoise or some other Jewel set within the Rose of those many Gems of your Lordships Wisdom and Vertues This Present which I thus humbly consecrate to your Lordship may be termed barbarous as all things are which are differenced from us by diversity of Manners and Custom and are not dressed in ●●e mode and fashion of our times and Countries for we contract prejudice from ignorance and want of familiarity But your Lordship who exactly ponderates the weight of humane Actions acknowledges reason in all its habits and draws not the measures of

them with gifts and riches at their advancement as undoubted consequents of the Grand Signiors favour And at the farewell with much submission they visit the Capa Aga or chief of the Eunuchs and other principal officers of the Seraglio recommending themselves in the time of their absence to their good grace and favour desiring to live in their good opinion and friendship and this is done with as much ceremony and complement as is exercised in the most civil parts of Christendome For though the Turks out of pride and scorn comport themselves to Christians with a strange kind of barbarous haughtiness and neglect they are yet among themselves as courtly and precise in their own rules of complement and civility as they are at Rome or any other parts of the civilized world CHAP. VI. Of the method of the Turkish Studies and Learning in the Seraglio WE have rather shewed in the foregoing Chapter the education of those young Scholars in reference to exercise of body and dexterity in arms then the method of their studies and speculations according to the manner of our Seminaries and Colledges which more respect the cultivation of the mind with the principles of vertue and morality and the notions of sublime reason then in the improvements of the body by assiduity of exercise which makes them become active and begets an agility in the management of arms And though the latter is a business most attended to by sprightly and ingenious spirits who know preferments in the Ottoman Court have always depended and still do on the virtue of the Sword yet speculation and knowledge in Sciences are not wholly estranged from their Schools which we shall in brief touch upon to satisfie the curiosity of our Academies who I know would gladly be resolved what sort of Physical or Moral Philosophy what Tongues and Sciences fall within the contemplation of that barbarous ignorance of the Turks To dilucide which the most clearly that I can according to the best information of the learned Turks It is reported by the Kalfaes or Pedagogues of the Seraglio that their chief design is to instruct their Scholars in reading and writing so as they may have some inspection into the books of their Law and Religion especially the Alchoran whereby may be produced in their minds a greater reverence to them For being once passed from the first form of their A. B. C. and joyning Syllables they are then instructed in the Arabian Tongue wherein all the secrets and treasure of their Religion and Laws are contained and is a necessary accomplishment of a Pasha or any great Minister in relation to the better discharge of his office being thereby enabled to have an inspection into the writings and sentences of the Kadees or other Officers of the Law within his jurisdiction as well as furnished with knowledge and matter of discourse concerning religion And to adorn these young Candidates of the Grand Signiors favour with more polite and ingenious endowments the next lesson is the Persian Tongue which fits them with quaint words and eloquence becoming the Court of their Prince and corrects the grossness and enriches the barrenness of the Turkish tongue which in it self is void both of expression and sweetness of accent It teaches them also a handsome and gentle deportment instructs them in Romances raises their thoughts to aspire to the generous and virtuous actions they read of in the Persian Novellaries and endues them with a kind of Platonick love each to other which is accompanied with a true friendship amongst some few and with as much gallantry as is exercised in any part of the world But for their Amours to Women the restraint and strictness of Discipline makes them altogether strangers to that Sex for want of conversation with them they burn in lust one towards another and the amorous disposition of youth wanting more natural objects of affection is transported to a most passionate admiration of beauty wheresoever it finds it which because it is much talked of by the Turks we will make it a distinct discourse by it self The books they read commonly in the Persian language are Danisten Schahidi Pend-attar Giulistin Bostan Hafiz and the Turkish books called Mulemma or a mixture of the Arabian and Persian words both in prose and verse facetious and full of quick and lively expressions Of these sorts of books those most commonly read are called Kirkwizir Humaiunname or delile we Kemine El fulecale Seidbatal and various other Romances these are usually the study of the most aiery and ingenious spirits amongst them Those others who are of a complexion more melancholick and inclinable to contemplation proceed with more patience of method and are more exact in their studies intending to become Masters of their Pen and by that means to arrive to honour and office either of Rest Efendi or Secretary of State Lord Treasurer or Secretary of the Treasury or Dispensatory c. or else to be Emaums or Parish Priests of some principal Moschs of Royal foundation in which they pass an easie quiet and secure life with a considerable competency of livelyhood Others aim in their studies to become Hazifizi which signifies a Conserver of the Alchoran who get the whole Alchoran by heart and for that reason are held in great esteem and their persons as sacred as the place which is the Repository of the Law Those who are observed to be more addicted to their Books then others are named by them Talibulilmi or lovers of Philosophy though very few amongst them arrive to any learning really so called yet they attain to the degree of Giuzehon or Readers of the Alchoran for benefit and relief of the souls of those departed who for that end hath bequeathed them Legacies At certain houses they read Books that treat of the matters of their Faith and render them out of Arabick into Turkish and these Books are Schurut Salat Mukad Multeka Hidaie c. which they descant upon in an Expository manner instructing the more ignorant and of lower form by way of Catechism They have also some Books of Poetry written both in Persian and Arabick which run in Rhime and Meeter like the Golden Verses of Pythagoras containining excellent sentences of Morality being directions for a godly life and contemplations of the miseries and fallacies of this world which many of them commit to memory and repeat occasionally as they fall into discourse For other Sciences as Logick Physick Metaphsick Mathematicks and other out University Learning they are wholly ignorant unless in the latter as far as Musick is a part of Mathematicks whereof there is a School apart in the Seraglio Only some that live in Constantinople have learned some certain rules of Astrology which they exercise upon all occasions and busie themselves in Prophesies of future contingencies of the Affairs of the Empire and the unconstant estate of great Ministers in which their predictions seldom divine grateful or pleasiing stories Neither have

but the Turks gave a stop to his return pretending that their Law which was indulgent to the persons of Embassadours did not yet acquit them from payment of their debts or priviledge them with impunity to rob the Believers and other subjects of the Grand Siguior contrary to that rule of Grotius who not only exempts the Persons but the Servants and moveables of Embassadours from attachments and no Law can compel him to the satisfaction of debts by force but by friendly perswasion only till being returned to his own Country and put off the quality of a publick person he becomes liable to common process Si quid ergo debiti contraxit ut sit res solieo loco nullas possideat 〈◊〉 compellandus erit amice si detrectet is qui misit ita ut ad postremum usurpentur ea quae 〈◊〉 debitores extra territorium positos usurpari solent Nor less remarkeable was the barbarous usage of the Sieur la Haye Embassadour also for the French King to the Port under the Government of the great Visier Kuperli The Court being then at Adrianople and the Treaty in hand between the Grand Signior and the Republick of Venice through the mediation of the French Embassadour by consent and command of his Master certain Letters of his wrote in Characters were intercepted by the Turks by what means and upon what information the matter was too evident then to be apprehended other then an Italian contrivance the Cypher as containing matter prejudicial to the State was carried to Adrianople and being known by examination and confession of the Messenger to have been delivered to him by the Secretary of the French affairs immediately in all haste the Embassador then at Constantinople was cited to appear at Court but being ancient and indisposed in his health with the Gout and Stone dispatched his Son as his Procurator with instructions and orders how to answer what might be objected hoping by that means to excuse the inconvenience of a Winters journey The Son being there arrived immediately was called to Audience accompanied with the Chancellor or Secretary for the Merchants for the other Secretary of the private affairs of the Embassie apprehending the fury and injustice of the Turks had timely secured himself by flight Discourse was first had concerning the Contents of the Characters the Turks insolent in their Speeches provoked this Sieur la Haye the younger to utter something tending towards a contempt of that power the Turks had over him encouraging himself with the thoughts of the protection of the King his Master who was soon sensible and moved with the least injuries offered his Ministers The Turks who can endure nothing less then menaces and Kuperlee through natural cruelty and choler of old age and particular malice against the French Nation moved with this reply commanded the Caousbashee who is chief of the Pursivants to strike him in the mouth which he did with that force being a rude robustious fellow that with a few blows of his Fist he strook out two of his Teeth before and in a most undecent and barbarous manner dragged him with the Secretary for the Merchants to a Dungeon so loathsome and moist that the ill vapours oft-times extinguished the Candle The old Ambassadour the Father was with like Turkish fury sent for the Turks executing all they do with strange haste and violence Barbaris contatio servilis statim exequiregium videtur and being arrived at Adrianople was also committed to custody though not with that rigour and severity of Imprisonment as the Son until the space of two Months passing with presents and sollicitations they both obtained their liberty and returned again to Constantinople where scarce were they arrived before news coming of a French Ship which had loaden Goods of Turks and run away with his Cargason the Embassadour was again committed to another Prison in Constantinople called the seven Towers where he remained until with Gifts and Money the anger of the Turks was abated And still the malice of Kuperlee persecuted this Sieur la Haye until after his Embassie of 25 years continuance unfortuante only at the conclusion he was dispatched home obscurely and in disgrace without Letters of revocation from his Master or other intimation to the Grand Signior which might signifie the desire of this Embassadours return The reason of this irreverent carriage in the Turks towards the persons of Embassadours contrary to the custom of the ancient 〈◊〉 and other gallant and civilized people is an apprehension and Maxime they have received that an Embassadour is indued with two qualifications one of representing to the Grand Signior the desires of his Prince the breach of Articles or League the aggrievances and abuses of Merchants trading in his Dominions that so satisfaction and amendment may be made And the other that he remains in nature of a Hostage called by themselves Mahapous or pledge by which he becomes responsible for what is acted by his Prince contrary to the Capitulations of Peace and remains for a pawn for the faithful and sincere carriage of his Nation and as security to insure what goods belonging to Turks are loaden on their Vessels As the Resident for Holland was in the year 1663 imprisoned at Adrianople for miscarriages of a Ship belonging to his Nation taken by Maltese men of War whereon at 〈◊〉 were goods loaden belonging to the Grand Signior and other considerable persons of State and was not released until he engaged to eighty five thousand Dollars in the space of one hundred and twenty days which was the full import of the Turkish interest Nor hath this Law of Nations to the sacred esteem of Embassadours found better observation towards the Representatives of the German Emperour who have upon all conjunctures of Discord and Breaches of Peace between those two powerful Princes been subject to confinements and custody of a Guard nothing differing from formal imprisonment or else as it happened to the German Resident in the last War are transported from place to place according to the motion of the Armies as a barbarous Trophy in the time of their prosperous successes and as a means at hand to reconcile and mediate when evil Fortune compels them to composition What ill fate soever hath attended the Ministers of other Princes in this Court the Embassadours from his His Majesty of great Britain our Sacred King have never incurred this dishonour and violation of their Office the negotiations and differences since the English Trade hath been opened in Turkie have been various and considerable and matters as to the security of the Embassadour and Merchants have been often reduced to a doubtful condition as far as words and rude speeches full of menaces and choler might make a sober man suspitious of a greater ruine And yet through the constancy prudence and good fortune of Embassadours the Turkish rashness hath not drawn upon themselves the guilt of violating their persons but have either