Chapter III: Preface (3)

FLAVIUS LEO II. minor, was born 457; and died 474, aged 17,
having reigned but ten months. He was the grandson of Leo I.

FLAVIUS ZENO, (Tarasicodista,) was born in Isauria, in 426,
succeeded Leo II. as sole emperor, and died in 491, having
reigned seventeen years. Some affirm he was buried alive
by his wife. The term Tarasicodista was an Isaurian name,
which he changed for Zeno. Under him, the Western Empire was
entirely destroyed, and Odoacer, king of the Heruli, was
proclaimed king of Italy. For fifty years after, till the
time of Justinian, the reigns of the emperors are obscure and
indistinct.

_Family of Anastatius._

FLAVIUS ANASTATIUS, I. (Dicorus,) was born at Dyrrachium,
in 430, and was killed by lightning in his palace in 518,
having reigned twenty-seven years and eleven months. He was
distinguished for running a wall from the Euxine to the
Propontis, and including a triangular space, called the “Delta
of Thrace.”

Family of Justinus Thrax.

FLAVIUS ANICIUS JUSTINUS I. was born in 450, in Illyria,
called to the throne on the death of Anastatius, and died in
527, after a reign of eight years and seven months.

FLAVIUS ANICIUS JUSTINIANUS I. was born in Dacia, in 482, and
died in 565, after a long reign of thirty-seven years and
seven months, which was devoted to useful objects. Besides
the erection of the church of St. Sophia, he introduced the
culture of silk into Europe, and caused to be drawn up the
codes, pandects, institutes, and, a few years after, the
digest of laws, forming a system of civil jurisprudence, which
is an everlasting monument of his reign. Under him, Proclus, a
second Archimedes, set fire to the Gothic fleet by means of a
concave mirror of brass.

FLAVIUS ANICIUS JUSTINUS II. junior, (Curopalata,) was born
in Thrace, crowned on the death of his uncle Justinian, and
died in 578, after a reign of twelve years and ten months. He
had been superintendent of the palace, and hence the title
Curopalata.

FAMILY OF TIBERIUS.

FLAVIUS ANICIUS TIBERIUS, I. called the New Constantine, was
born in Thrace, and died in 582, after a reign of three years
and ten months.

FLAVIUS MAURICIUS TIBERIUS II. was born in Cappadocia, in
539, and was killed in 602, having reigned twenty years and
three months. In his reign Augustine and his monks proceeded
to preach Christianity in Britain, and the Saxon heptarchy
commenced.

_Family of Phocas._

FLAVIUS PHOCAS was crowned in 602; he died in 610, after a
reign of eight years. He murdered his predecessor Mauricius,
and decapitated him and his five children: he was himself
assassinated by his successor Heraclius. He is represented
as a monster among the emperors: his person small and
deformed; his hair and eyebrows red and shaggy; and his cheeks
disfigured with scars; his temper was savage; his pleasures
brutal; and he was grossly ignorant, not only of letters,
but his own profession−-war. From the time of Justinian, the
pleadings of the courts had been in Latin, but from the reign
of Phocas, they were held in Greek, and the writings formed a
barbarous mixture of Greek and Latin characters.

_Family of Heraclius._

FLAVIUS HERACLIUS, son of the præfect of Africa, sailed to
Constantinople, and having put Phocas to death, was crowned in
610. He died in 641, of dropsy, after a reign of thirty years
and five months. He was distinguished for his conquests over
the Persians, and for his pilgrimage to Jerusalem to restore
the true cross; the ceremony resulting from it is still called
“the Elevation of the Cross.” In his reign Mohammed fled from
Mecca to Medina, and the era of the Hegira commenced.

FLAVIUS HERACLIUS II. OR CONSTANTINUS III. was born in 612;
and died by poison in 641; having reigned but one hundred and
three days. He was associated in the empire with his brother
Heracleonas.

FLAVIUS HERACLIUS CONSTANS II. was born in 630; and was
smothered in a bath in 668; after a reign of twenty-seven
years.

FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS IV., (Pogonatus,) died in 685; after a
reign of seventeen years. He was called Pogonatus, or “the
Bearded,” because when he went against the tyrant of Sicily to
avenge his brother’s death, he would not suffer his beard to
be cut till he had effected his purpose. In his reign the city
was besieged by the Saracens, and their fleet destroyed by the
Greek fire.

FLAVIUS JUSTINIANUS II., (Rhinometus,) was born about the year
670, and was killed in 711; he reigned first ten years. He was
called Rhinometus because he was seized by his enemy Leontius,
who cut off his nose. After a reign of seven years he was
deposed, and then restored, and reigned six more. With him and
his young son was extinguished the race of Heraclius, after
enjoying the sovereignty for one hundred years.

FILEPICUS BARDANES, was blinded, and deposed one year and six
months after his coronation.

ANASTATIUS II., (Artemius,) was crowned in 713; resigned; and
was put to death by Leo Isaurus, when he attempted again to
recover the crown.

THEODOSIUS III. was crowned in 715; resigned. His sanctity in
retirement was such, that he was reputed to work miracles.

_Family of Leo Isaurus._

FLAVIUS LEO III., called Conon, died of a dropsy in 741;
after a reign of twenty-four years and eleven months. He was
called the Isaurian, from the country whence his family came
to Constantinople. He began the first reformation in the Greek
church, by causing all images to be pulled down, and excluded
from places of worship as idolatrous.

FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS V., (Copronimus,) was born, 719; and
died, 775; after a reign of thirty-five years and eleven
months. He was in derision called Copronimus, because he
defiled the font at his baptism. During his long reign he
followed up the reformation of his father, and was seconded by
the people, who formed themselves into associations, called
Iconoclasts or “image breakers,” and destroyed every such
idolatrous representation. He also suppressed monasteries. The
writers of the Latin church represented Copronimus as “chained
with demons in the infernal abyss;” while the Greeks venerated
his tomb, and prayed before it as that of a heaven-directed
saint. In his reign, historians first dated from, the birth of
Christ.

FLAVIUS LEO IV., (Chazarus,) was born at Constantinople in
750; and died of a fever in 780, after a reign of five years.
He followed up the reformation, and the Latin writers affirm
that he sacrilegiously took a crown with precious stones, from
the church of Santa Sophia, and when he placed it on his
head, his face burst out into carbuncles, similar to those in
the crown, as a punishment for his impiety, and this caused
the fever of which he died.

FLAVIUS LEO CONSTANTINUS VI. was born at Constantinople in
771; and died in 797; after his eyes had been put out, he
reigned seven years. In concert with his mother, Irené, he
restored the worship of images, for which he is highly praised
by Latin writers.

FLAVIUS NICEPHORUS I. was born in Seleucia; he was drawn into
an ambush by the Bulgarians, and killed in battle in 811;
having reigned nine years and nine months.

FLAVIUS STAURICIUS was presented with the diadem by his father
Nicephorus in 803. He was grievously wounded in battle, and,
after lingering in hopeless pain, he became a monk, and
retired to a monastery, where he died in 812.

MICHAEL I., (Rhangabe Curopalata,) married the daughter of
Nicephorus; was proclaimed emperor in 811, on the death of his
father-in-law; but was deposed, and died in a monastery, after
a reign of one year and ten months.

_Family of Leo the Armenian._

FLAVIUS LEO V., (Armenus,) was born in Armenia, and crowned
in 813; and was assassinated while celebrating divine service
in his palace in 820; after a reign of seven years and five
months.

_Family of Michael Balbus._

FLAVIUS MICHAEL II. (the Stammerer,) was born in Phrygia,
crowned in 820; and died in 829, of a dysentery, having
reigned eight years and nine months. He was named Balbus from
a hesitation in his voice. He revived the reformation by
expelling images from churches.

FLAVIUS THEOPHILUS, called Augustus by his father, was born
in 820, crowned in 829, and died in 842; having reigned
twelve years and three months. He vigorously continued
the reformation of the church, and is thus described, _Is
impietatis paternæ æmulus cultores imaginum persecutus est._

FLAVIUS MICHAEL III., (Ebriosus,) was born in 836; crowned
in 842; and was assassinated in 867. He acquired the name of
Ebriosus, or the Drunken, from his constant intemperance.
He suffered his mother, Theodora, to introduce images into
churches. The sister of the king of Bulgaria having embraced
Christianity, he and all his subjects, by her persuasion,
became converts in this reign. Clocks were then first brought
from Venice to Constantinople.

_Family of Basilius Macedo._

FLAVIUS BASILIUS I., (Cephalos,) was born in Macedonia,
crowned in 866, and died in 886. He was called Cephalos from
the size of his head. He was a zealous promoter of image
worship. In his reign, Alfred king of England died.

FLAVIUS LEO VI., the Philosopher, was crowned by his father at
the age of five years in 870; and died in 911. He devoted a
long reign of twenty-five years, after his father’s death, to
literary pursuits, and composed works which have come down to
us: amongst others, a “Treatise on Tactics.”

FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS VII., (Porphyrogenitus,) the son of Leo
VI. by his fourth wife, was born in 905; crowned in 913; and
died in the year 959, of poison, administered by his own son.
He was called Porphyrogenitus, or born in the purple, because
an apartment in the palace was lined with that colour, in
which his birth took place. It was a title generally given to
those whose fathers were on the throne when they were born, a
rare distinction in the Lower Empire. He was the first to whom
the distinction was applied. His birth was accompanied by the
appearance of a comet. He was distinguished for his devotion
to literature, and left behind him “the Geography of the
Empire,” and other works. In his reign Arabic numerals were
first used for the clumsy prolixity of alphabetic letters.

ROMANUS I., (Lecapenus,) was born in Armenia, crowned in 919;
and died in 946. His reign was remarkable by the siege of
Constantinople by the Bulgarians.

ROMANUS II. junior, was born in 937; and crowned in 959. He
died of poison in 963; after a reign of four years.

BASILIUS II., (Bulgarotoctonos,) was born in 955;
crowned in 960; and died in 1025. He obtained the name
“Bulgarian-killer,” from the cruelty he exercised over them.
He took 15,000 prisoners, and ordered the eyes to be scooped
out from the heads of every ninety-nine out of one hundred.

NICEPHORUS II. (Phocas,) was born at Constantinople, and
crowned, 963, on the death of Romanus. He was assassinated by
Zemisces, and other conspirators, in 969.

FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS VIII. son of Lecapenus, was associated
with his brother, and in 1026, became sole emperor at the
age of sixty-nine, and died in 1028. It was in his reign the
practice of duelling was introduced: one, fought in 1026, is
the first on record in the annals of the empire.

JOHANNES ZEMISCES was a domestic in the palace while
Nicephorus Phocas enjoyed the crown. After his assassination,
he assumed himself the purple, but was poisoned in 975, after
a reign of six years.

CONSTANTINUS IX., brother of Basilius II., was born in 961,
and reigned singly, after the death of Basilius, three
years. He died in 1028, having enjoyed the title of Augustus
sixty-six years. The reign of the two brothers, with the
intervening usurpations, is the longest and most obscure in
Byzantine history.

ROMANUS III., (Argyrus,) succeeded to the empire in 1028, and
was put to death by his wife Zoe in 1034. She had administered
slow poison, but, impatient of its operation, caused him to
be suffocated in a bath by an eunuch, who held his head under
water.

MICHAEL IV., (Paphlagonicus,) was born in Paphlagonia, crowned
in 1034, and afterwards retired to a monastery in 1041. He
married Zoe after the assassination of her former husband, and
his death was hastened by never-ceasing remorse. The first
schism commenced in this reign between the Greek and Latin
churches.

MICHAEL V., (Calaphates,) was crowned in 1041, and was put
to death the same year, after a reign of four months. He was
called Calaphates because his trade had been careening boats.

ZOE & THEODORA, (the Matrons,) were crowned in 1042. They
were taken at an advanced age, one from a prison, and the
other from a monastery. Zoe, at the age of sixty, took a third
husband, and died in 1050.

FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS X., (Monomachus,) was crowned in 1042.
He was called Monomachus from his bravery in single combat.
He died in 1055, having survived his atrocious wife Zoe two
years. In his reign the Turks first entered the territories of
the Greek empire in Asia.

THEODORA was crowned sole empress in 1055, at the age of
seventy-six, and reigned one year and ten months. She took an
associate, and thus for twenty years two feeble sisters, and
one an abandoned profligate, nominated whom they pleased to
the empire.

MICHAEL VI., (Stratioticus,) was crowned in 1056, and resigned
the year after. He obtained the name of Stratioticus from his
supposed skill in war. His aged and feeble associate died just
before, the last of the Basilian dynasty.

_Family of the Comneni._

ISAAK I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1057, and resigned in
1059. The name of Comnenus is one of the most distinguished of
the Lower Empire.

_Family of Ducas._

FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS XI., (by some IX.) (Ducas,) was crowned
in 1060, and died a natural death in 1066. During his reign
Jerusalem was taken by the Turks and Saracens, William the
Conqueror entered England, and the Norman dynasty began.

EUDOCIA was crowned in 1067, on the death of her husband, and
reigned alone but one year. She was expelled from the palace,
and lingered in obscurity till the time of Anna Comnena, who
saw her alive in 1096.

ROMANUS IV., (Diogenes,) was crowned in 1068, and was killed
in 1071. He had married Eudocia, and was nominated to the
crown in prejudice of her sons. He was taken prisoner by the
Turks, who scooped out his eyes; of which he died, covered
with worms, and in extreme misery.

MICHAEL VII.,(Parapinace,) crowned in 1071, and resigned in
1078, and retired to a monastery. He was called Parapinace
because he had suffered the bushel of corn to be reduced to
the size of a quart. He associated his two brothers with
him in the empire, under the names of Andronicus I. and
Constantine XII.

NICEPHORUS III., (Botoniates,) was crowned 1078: he resigned
in 1081, and entered a monastery. In his reign, Doomsday Book
began to be compiled in England, to ascertain the tenure of
estates.

_Restoration of the Family of Comnenus._

ALEXIUS I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1081, and died in 1118.
He lived to the age of seventy-one, and reigned thirty-seven.
His daughter, Anna Comnena, illustrated this era by her
writings. The history of her father’s eventful reign is yet
extant. In England, William Rufus and Henry I. were his
contemporaries, and the first crusade commenced. JOHANNES II.,
(Comnenus,) Kalojohannes, began his reign in 1118, and died in
1143, of the wound of a poisoned arrow, accidentally inflicted
by himself. He obtained the name of Kalojohannes for his
personal beauty. His contemporary in England was Stephen.

MANUEL I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1143, and died in 1180.
In his reign the canon law was drawn up, and the second
crusade commenced.

ALEXIUS II., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1180, and died in
1183. He was murdered by his successor Andronicus.

ANDRONICUS I., (Comnenus,) was crowned in 1183, and died in
1185. He was cruelly put to death, also, by his successor, who
caused his eyes to be put out, and his hands cut off, and then
led him through the city, seated on a camel, when he was torn
in pieces by the multitude.

ISAAK II., (Angelus,) was crowned in 1185, and in 1195 his
eyes were put out. In his reign the third crusade commenced.
His contemporary in England was Richard I.

ALEXIUS III., (Angelus) was crowned in 1195, and died in 1204.
The deposition of his brother Isaak was the pretext to the
Crusaders for the sack of Constantinople.

ISAAK III., ALEXIUS IV., ALEXIUS V., (Ducas Mourzoufle,) 1203.
In six months, five emperors were crowned at Constantinople;
three were murdered, and two fled. Mourzoufle (so called from
his dark eyebrows) was cast from the monument of Theodosius.
The Crusaders took and sacked the city, and the empire was
partitioned: Lascaris obtained Nicæa and Bythinia; Alexius,
Trebisond; and Michael, Epirus.

_Frank Family._

BALDWIN I., (Robert,) crowned in 1204. He was drawn into an
ambush by the Greeks and Bulgarians, by whom some say he was
cut to pieces. He never afterwards appeared. Aristotle’s works
were now first brought from Constantinople, Ghengis Khan
reigned in Tartary, and Magna Charta was extorted from king
John in England.

HENRY was called to the throne on the supposed death of his
brother in 1206, and reigned 10 years.

BALDWIN II. was crowned in 1228; deposed in 1261. He fled
to Italy. The Latin dynasty was extinguished, and the Greek
restored. The Inquisition was established in the Latin church.
Henry III. reigned in England.

_Family of the Palæologi._

MICHAEL VIII., (Palæologus) crowned in 1262; died in 1283. He
was regent during the minority of John Lascaris, whom he put
to death. He endeavoured to effect an union between the Greek
and Latin churches without success. The Mamelukes now seized
on Egypt. Edward I. reigned in England.

Andronicus II., (Palæologus,) was crowned in 1283, and
abdicated in 1328. He retired to a monastery, where he lived
to the age of seventy-four. The Turks seized on Bythinia, and
Othman established his capital at Brusa. From him they are
since called Ottomans, or Osmanli. Edward II. reigned in
England.

ANDRONICUS III., (Palæologus,) crowned in 1328, having deposed
his grandfather, with whom he had been associated. He died of
an irregular life in 1341. Edward III. reigned in England.

JOHANNES III., (Cantacuzene,) was crowned in 1342, and
abdicated in 1355. He retired, with his wife, to a monastery,
where he lived till 1411. He there composed the “History of
his own Time,” which is still extant. In his reign the Turks
first entered Europe.

JOHANNES IV., (Palæologus,) was crowned on his father
Andronicus’s death, in 1341, and died in 1391. In his reign
Amurath took Adrianople, and established a capital in Europe.
Richard II. reigned in England.

MANUEL II., (Palæologus,) was crowned sole emperor in 1391,
and died in 1425. In his reign, Bajazet laid siege to
Constantinople, which was raised by Tamerlane. Henry IV. and
Henry V. reigned in England.

JOHANNES V., (Palæologus,) crowned sole emperor in 1425, and
died of the gout in 1448. In his reign the art of printing was
first discovered in Europe. Henry VI. was his contemporary of
England.

CONSTANTINUS XIII., by some XI., (Palæologus,) was crowned
in 1448, and killed in 1453. Mohammed took the city of
Constantinople, and put an end to the Greek empire.
Constantine had two brothers−-Demetrius, who basely submitted
to slavery, and permitted his daughter to be received into
the conqueror’s harem; and Thonas, who made vigorous efforts
to rescue Greece from the Ottoman power. He finally retired
to Italy. His children proceeded to England, where he died:
and the ashes of the last of the family of the Greek dynasty
repose among the free in Britain, where their monument is
still to be seen in Llanulph Church in Cornwall. It is
remarkable, that the first Christian emperor of the East was
born, and the descendants of the last, repose in England.

TURKISH DYNASTY

MAHOMET II., (Fatih,) He was proclaimed sultan in 1451, and
took possession of Constantinople on the memorable 29th of
May, 1453. He died of a colic in 1481. The title of Fatih, or
“the Conqueror” was given to him on the occasion, as opening
a way into the Christian capital. He prepared an epitaph to
be placed on his tomb, containing the names of all the kings,
countries, and cities he had conquered. His contemporary in
England was Edward IV.

BAJAZET II. He was proclaimed in 1481, and ceased to reign in
1512. His son Selim had appointed for him a place of retreat
such as he wished, but in the meantime had corrupted his
physician, who poisoned him at Tzurallo. His contemporaries in
England were Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., and Henry
VIII.

SELIM I. (Yavuz) began his reign in 1512, and died of a fever
in 1520. His contemporary in England was Henry VIII.

SOLIMAN I. (by some II.) (Kanuni) began his reign in 1520;
and terminated it in 1566. He is generally called in Europe
the “Magnificent,” but by Turks, Kanuni, or the “Institutor,”
as he drew up a list of institutes by which the kingdom was
afterwards to be governed, instead of those traditions which
had before been their unwritten law. His contemporaries in
England were, Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth.

SELIM II. succeeded his father Soliman in 1566; he died
in 1574. Contrary to the usual temperament of a Turkish
sovereign, he was fond of peace, and sighed for repose,
particularly after the loss of the terrible battle of Lepanto,
in which Cervantes lost an arm. His contemporary in England
was Elizabeth.

AMURATH III. succeeded his father Selim in 1574; and died
in 1595; a victim to melancholy and a morbid imagination.
The discharge of a cannon broke the windows of his kiosk,
as he reclined on his divan. Supposing that this portended
his death, he died in a fever under that impression. His
contemporary in England was Elizabeth, who wrote him a Latin
letter.

MOHAMMED III. succeeded to the throne on the death of his
father Mohammed in 1595; he died in 1603. He drowned all the
odalisks, or female slaves, of the seraglio, suspected of
pregnancy, and put to death nineteen of his brothers on the
first day of his elevation. He, from policy, was advised by
his mother to affect a dissipated life, and contracted a habit
which he could not afterwards get rid of. He died prematurely
of excess. His only contemporary in England was Elizabeth.

ACHMET I. came to the throne in 1603; and died in 1607. He
escaped the fate usually attendant on a younger brother in
Turkey, by the premature death of his elder. His life was
attempted by a Dervish, who hurled a large stone on him from
the roof of a house, which bruised his shoulder. He supposed
that dogs communicated the plague, and he ordered them all to
be killed; but the mufti saved them, by affirming that every
dog had a soul. His contemporary in England was James I.

OSMAN, or OTHMAN II. succeeded his father Achmet in 1617; he
was strangled by the janissaries in 1621, at the early age
of nineteen years. A meteoric phenomenon, which assumed the
appearance of a huge cymeter, was seen in the sky in his reign
for a month, which the Turks were persuaded portended to them
the conquest of the world. Charles I. was his contemporary in
England.

_Mustapha I._ was dragged from prison, and set on the throne
by the janissaries in 1621, on the death of his nephew
Osman. In 1623 he was compelled to resign by the turbulent
janissaries, and re-entered the prison from which they had
taken him. James I. reigned in England.

AMURATH IV. began his reign in 1624; and ended it in 1640;
having hastened his death by an intemperate use of wine and
ardent spirits, so as to break down a strong constitution at
the age of thirty-one. He had conceived the extraordinary
projects of extinguishing the Ottoman race, by putting his
brother Ibrahim to death; but his own death anticipated
his intention. He annexed Bagdad to the empire. In his
reign, Cyril Lascaris, the Greek patriarch, published, at
the patriarchal press, a confession of eighteen articles,
declaring the faith of the Greeks on these points, similar to
that of the reformed church in Europe. The contemporary reign
in England was that of Charles I.

IBRAHIM, succeeded his brother in 1640, and was strangled by
the janissaries in 1668. He was a miserable-looking man, had
a pale visage, scanty beard, seamed with the small-pox, mean
appearance, spare person, hypochondriac, and subject to the
falling sickness. His contemporary in England was Charles I.

MOHAMMED IV. the son of Ibrahim, ascended the throne in 1648,
at the age of seven years. He was deposed in 1687, and shut
up in the seraglio, where he lingered in solitude four years.
In the year 1666, in this reign, Sabathi Levi, or Sevi,
appeared in Palestine as the expected Messiah, and was invited
to Constantinople by the sultan, who promised to restore
Jerusalem. Multitudes of people, both Turks and Jews, believed
on him. Among other miracles, he professed to be invulnerable;
but when he was set up as a mark to be shot at, his courage
failed, and he confessed the imposture. Contemporary
governments in England, “the Commonwealth,” Charles II.

SOLIMAN II. (III.) brother to the former, succeeded in 1687;
and died in 1691, of a dropsy. He was austere and indisposed
to accept the throne. He passed his whole time in studying
the koran. In his reign Lewin Warner, the Dutch ambassador at
the Port, caused the Bible to be translated at Constantinople
into the Turkish language. The MS. remained from that time
shut up in the University of Leyden, till it was discovered,
and lately published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Some copies were circulated among the Turks of Constantinople
in the year 1824, which caused a firman to be issued for their
suppression. English sovereigns, Charles II., James II.

ACHMET II. the younger brother of Mohammed, succeeded to
the throne in 1691; he died in 1695. His mind was mean and
powerless, and his person bloated: he had large staring eyes,
and a very long nose. Contemporaries in England, William and
Mary.

MUSTAPHA II. brother to Achmet, succeeded him in 1695; he
abdicated the throne in 1703. His contemporaries in England
were William III. and Anne.

ACHMET III. the brother of Mustapha, succeeded in 1703;
after a reign of twenty-seven years of prosperity, he too
was compelled by the turbulent janissaries, to abdicate the
throne in 1730; the third whom the caprice of the people had
dethroned in fifty years. His contemporaries in England were
Anne, George I., and George II.

MAHMOUD I., or MOHAMMED V., the nephew of Achmet, succeeded
in 1730; he died in 1754, after a mild reign of twenty-four
years. He was condescending and humble, and much regretted. It
is a precept of Islamism, that every man should be prepared
for his destiny, and able to support it by some useful
employment. Many sultans were mechanics, and so was Mahmoud;
he was a cunning worker in ivory, which he wrought with a
dexterity far exceeding that of a Turk. His contemporary in
England was George II.

OTHMAN III. the brother of Mahmoud, succeeded him in 1754; he
died in 1757. His reign was distinguished by the persevering
and sanguinary efforts of the Russians to effect their great
object of advancing to Constantinople, by urging the Greeks to
insurrection. His contemporary in England was George II.

MUSTAPHA III. (Gazi,) nephew of Othman, and son of Achmet
III., began his reign in 1757; and died in 1776. His uncle
had administered poison to himself and two brothers; they
perished, but he survived, and ever after retained the
traces of it. The approximation of Turks to European habits
and improvements, began with him. He ordered Boerhaave and
Machiavel to be translated into Turkish, and commanded his son
to be inoculated; and he founded a library and an academy.
He made vigorous efforts against the Russians, and was thus
called Gazi, “The Victorious.” George III. reigned in England.

ABDUL HAMED, the last of the sons of Achmet III. succeeded in
1776; he died in 1789. His reign, like his predecessors, was
marked by the advance of the Russians to their great object.
Sovereign in England, George III.

SELIM III. the only son of Mustapha, succeeded in 1789, to
the exclusion of the children of Abdul Hamed. He was deposed
by the janissaries in 1807, and afterwards strangled for
attempting to alter their discipline, and establish a nizam
dgeddite, or new corps. He was an amiable and enlightened
prince. Contemporary in England George III.

MUSTAPHA IV. was the eldest son of Abdul Hamed, and succeeded
in 1807; after a brief reign of one year, he too was deposed
in 1808, and afterwards strangled. Sovereign in England George
III.

MAHMOUD II. or MOHAMMED VI. succeeded his brother in 1808.
He extirpated the turbulent janissaries, remodelled the
empire, and, amid more perils, perhaps, than ever sovereign
encountered, he still reigns. He is the thirtieth monarch
of the Ottoman dynasty, and the twenty-fourth on the throne
of Constantinople, and has seen four fill the throne of
England−-George III., George IV., William IV., Victoria.

END OF HISTORICAL SKETCH.

CONSTANTINOPLE AND ITS ENVIRONS.

Mosque of Bajazet, Seraskier’s Tower, Yeni Jami, Solimanie, Mahomet, Selim, Tower of Galata.

CONSTANTINOPLE FROM THE ENTRANCE TO THE GOLDEN HORN.]

THE situations of Oriental cities, in general, possess advantages, in point of view, of which those in the west are deprived: London, Paris, Vienna, and St. Petersburg present only flat levels; and it is necessary to climb some impending height, to obtain a bird’s-eye view, so as to take in any portion except the first line of houses, and the tops of a few of the more lofty edifices which rise behind them. But in the East, every city has its Acropolis: some lofty eminence is chosen to build on, the summit of which is crowned with a fortress, and the sloping sides covered with streets and houses. In this way ancient towns are described by writers, who compare them to amphitheatres, with their streets, like the seats, rising one above the other. Constantinople participates in this advantage in an eminent degree.

The approach to this magnificent city, from the Sea of Marmora, is more beautiful, perhaps, than that of any other city in the world. Before the spectator lies a romantic archipelago of islands covered with pine, arbutus, and oak woods, from whence emerges, on every summit, some monastery of the Greek church. These lovely islets seem to float upon a sea generally calm and unruffled, and are beautifully reflected from a surface singularly pure and lucid. Beside them is the coast of Asia Minor, from which rises, at a distance, the vast contour of Mount Olympus, not, as the poet describes it, with “cloudy tops,” but usually unveiled and distinct; its flanks clothed with forests, and its summits crowned with eternal snows, glittering in sunlight, imparting to the heated atmosphere below an imagined feeling of refreshing coolness. In some states of the air, the effect of refraction is so deceptive, that the mountain seems almost to impend over the spectator.

From hence the coast sweeps round to the mouth of the Bosphorus, in a recess of which lies the town of Chalcedon. Beside it stretches, for more than three miles, the great cemetery of the Moslems, the most extensive, perhaps, in the world; and rising from the plain, and ascending the side of a hill, is the fine city of Scutari, associated with early historical recollections. It is of considerable extent, covering the inclined plain of the hill on which it is built, till the ascent is terminated by the lofty mountain of Bourgourloo, a detached portion of the great Bythinian chain. From thence a splendid view is commanded, including the romantic windings of the Bosphorus, almost for the whole extent of the strait, from the Euxine to the Propontis.

Below the promontory of Scutari, the Bosphorus rushes out with its rapid current, and, no longer confined within its narrow shores, expands itself into the open sea. The limpid torrent, like that of some great river tumbling down from its source, now wheels and boils, and creates such commotion that boats are oftentimes dangerously entangled.

On the European shore, and opposite to Scutari, two promontories project into the Bosphorus. The first is the peninsula of Pera, its lower part terminated by the ancient city of Galata, where the enterprising Genoese established one of their commercial marts under the Greek emperors, and where their language still attests their origin. The walls, with their ramparts and towers, are still entire; and the gates are nightly shut by the Turks with the same vigilant precaution as they were by their former masters. This is the crowded mart, where merchants of all nations have their stores and counting-houses, and which the active and busy genius of the Genoese still seems to animate.

The town of Pera occupies the elevated ridge of a high promontory between the harbour and the Bosphorus. On the spine of this eminence the European natives have established their residence. The merchants, whose stores and offices are below, have their dwelling-houses on this lofty and healthful elevation, to which they are seen climbing in groups every evening, when the business of the day is over. Their habitations form a strong contrast to those of the Turks. They are lofty, solid, and convenient, and from their height command a magnificent view of the circumjacent seas, with all their bays and islands. Here also the ambassadors of the different powers of Europe have their palaces, among which the British, before its destruction by fire, was the most beautiful and conspicuous.

Below the promontory of Pera, the noble harbour of “The Golden Horn” opens to the view, its entrance formed by the points of Galata and that of the seraglio. Here it is that ships of all nations are seen floating side by side, and indicating, by the peculiarity of their structure, the people to which they belong. But the most remarkable and characteristic are those which are sent from the different parts of the vast Turkish empire, in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The enormous vessels that compose the Turkish fleet are the most conspicuous objects. Some of them rise out of the water with a length and breadth so imposing, as to excite wonder how a nation, so ignorant of maritime affairs, and limited in their commercial intercourse, could have built such stupendous specimens of naval architecture. Many of them carry 140 brass cannon, of a calibre so enormous on the lower deck, as to throw balls of 100 lbs. weight. They are navigated by crews of 2000 men, and seem capable of opening a cannonade that could instantly sink the largest opponent. The brightness of their guns of burnished brass, the freshness of their cordage, the snowy whiteness of their sails, the gaiety and richness of their painting, always fresh and bright, give an impression that the nation to which they belong must have brought the art of ship-building to the highest perfection. On the bow of each is a colossal lion, highly carved and naturally coloured, which presents the emblem of the Turkish empire in its most formidable attitude. The first impression made by these great engines of naval warfare, is the vast superiority they possess, and the hopelessness of any opposition to them. Yet they are utterly powerless in the unskilful hands that guide them. The Turks, like their predecessors the Persians, are impotent by sea; and as the ancient Greeks with ease destroyed the fleets of the one, so did the modern Greeks those of the other with their tiny ships. Their small craft, like fishing-boats, with decayed timbers, ragged sails, and rotten cordage, which are now sometimes seen in the harbour lying peaceably beside the Turkish men-of-war, were more than a match for those gorgeous but unmanageable masses; and their rusty iron guns, whose explosion sounded like the shot of a pistol in comparison, silenced the immense batteries of ordnance, that seemed capable of blowing a Greek island out of the water.

The galleys of Africa next attract attention; these are always summoned, and ready to join the naval armaments of their sovereign, like the military vassals of some feudal lord. Their habits of ferocity, though restrained, still continue; when attached to the Turkish fleet, they carry ruin and desolation wherever they sail. These allies destroyed, in Greece, whatever the less merciless Turks had spared, and would have utterly exterminated the remnant of that people, had not Christian Europe interfered.

Beside these pirate galleys of the Mediterranean, are to be seen moored the lofty merchantmen of the Euxine. The singular structure of these vessels is peculiar to the eastern coasts of the Black Sea, and has been preserved from the earliest times. These immense and unwieldy ships rise to a considerable height out of the water, both at the bow and the stern, and seem altogether incapable of resisting a gale of wind. They have seldom more than one mast and one immense mainsail, and seem to move with so infirm a balance, that they totter along through the water as if about to upset every moment. Approaching Constantinople, they are overtaken, late in the year, by the violent north-easter of the Melktem, or the misty weather that then prevails; and unable to make the narrow entrance of the Bosphorus, or bear up from a lee-shore, less skilful or less fortunate than the Argonauts, they are either dashed on the Cyanean rocks, or driven on the sands. Against this misfortune they adopt many superstitious precautions. Every vessel has a wreath of blue beads suspended from the prow, as a protection against the glance of an evil eye, which is supposed to expend itself on this amulet.

But the vessel which gives the “Golden Horn” its most distinctive character and striking feature, is the “light caïque,” It is impossible to conceive forms more elegant; from their levity and fragility, they have been compared to an egg-shell divided longitudinally, and drawn out at each end to a point. They project to a considerable elongation at the stem and stern, and, gracefully ascending from below, seem to touch the water only at a point. They are made of thin beech-plank, not grosser than the birch-bark of an Indian canoe, and finished with considerable care and neatness. The gunwale and sides are tastily carved with beads and various devices of Turkish sculpture, and the pure and polished wood is not defiled by paint. The exceeding levity of the materials of which the caïques are composed, the slight resistance they meet with in the water from the small surface in contact with it, and the great strength and dexterity of the caïquegees or boatmen who propel them, give them wonderful rapidity. The oars are not, like ours, confined in rullocks, emitting a harsh sound by their attrition, and impeding the stroke by their concussion; they are paddles of shaven beech, exactly poised by a protuberance on the handle to counteract the length of the blade, and bound to the gunwale by a single pin, with a thong of sheep-skin leather. This is constantly kept oiled, so that the stem slips freely and noiselessly through the loop, and the blade cuts the water with the whole collected strength of the rower. Each caïquegee pulls a pair of oars, and their skiffs glide along the surface with the speed, silence, and flexibility of a flight of swallows. The only objection to their structure is the difficulty of getting into them. If the passenger step on the stem or stern, his footing has no stability, as the boat has no hold of the water beneath the point of pressure: if he step on the gunwale, it turns over at once, as there is no keel to offer resistance. It requires therefore considerable caution to enter a caïque; and when this is effected, the passenger sits on the bottom, either at length or from side to side. Sometimes these unstable skiffs carry a sail, at the imminent hazard of upsetting. As they have neither keel, ballast, or rudder, the passenger must move hastily to the windward side, and watch to counterpoise the pressure of the sail. Caïques are the only ferry-boats to cross from shore to shore, and various wooden platforms, called iskelli, project from the beach for their accommodation. On each of these stands a venerable Turk with a long beard, and generally a badge, which denotes him to be a _hadgee_, or “pilgrim,” who has made a perilous journey to the tomb of the Prophet. He keeps order with his baton; and when you are safely deposited in the bottom of the boat, he gives you the pilgrim’s benediction−-_Allah smaladik_, “I commend you to God.” From the constant and crowded intercourse between 700,000 people, inhabiting the peninsulas on both sides of the water, and each skiff taking no more than one or two passengers, the water is covered all day long with these caïques in constant motion. The passengers are clad in snow-white turbans, tall calpacs, and flowing pelisses, of scarlet or other dazzling colours, so that this ever-moving scene is a perpetual change of elegant forms and brilliant hues.

Mixing with them, and penetrating through the crowd, are daily seen the larger caïques, destined to convey the sultan, or some high dignitary, from the seraglio or the porte, to some palace or kiosk on the Bosphorus. These long galleys are propelled by sixteen or twenty pair of oars. They are ornamented by a long projecting prow, with various sculpture, curling over or about, and covered with the richest gilding. At the stem is a silken canopy, and within it the stately and solitary personage to whom it belongs. Below the canopy sits the Reis, the important person who guides it, with its valuable freight. This man is often chosen for his humour, with which the sultan is fond of amusing himself on his passage, like an European monarch, of old, with his fool; and he sometimes prefers him, for his talent in this way, to the first post in the empire. The Reis who most distinguished himself was the Delhi Abdallah. He had a loud voice, shouting out his words−-a rude humour, very coarse−-and a faculty of inventing new and extraordinary oaths and curses. After it was supposed that he had exhausted all the forms of imprecation, the sultan laid a wager one day that he could not invent a new one. To the great gratification of his master, he did so; and he was so pleased with his ingenuity, that he raised him at once from the state of a boatman on the Bosphorus to that of Capitan Pasha; and he who had never been on board a larger vessel than a caïque, now commanded the vast Turkish fleet. His first occupation was that of bostandgee, or gardener, at the seraglio. Such are the incongruous pursuits and rapid elevations of public men in Turkey.

Mixed with these light and elegant forms, are large, deep, and clumsy barges, rowed with long heavy sweeps, and filled with people of all nations crowded together. These are used for conveying persons to their residences in the villages along the shores of the Bosphorus. In a country where there are neither roads nor carriages, these boats are the only conveyance for the lower order of people. They are seen every evening slowly emerging from the harbour, filled with Turks, Jews, Armenians, Arabs, Greeks, and Franks, in all their variety of costumes, covered over with a cloud of tobacco-smoke from their several chibouques, and making the harbour resound with the loud and discordant jargon of the several tongues.

Within these few years a new feature has been added to the moving picture of the harbour. When steam-boats were adopted by all the nations of Europe, the tardy Turks alone rejected them. The currents of the Bosphorus constantly running down from the Black Sea with the velocity of four or five miles an hour, renders it extremely difficult for ships to ascend, unless assisted by a strong wind, and even with this aid they hardly stemmed the rapid stream. It was not uncommon to see lines of twenty or thirty men, with long cords passed over their shoulders, slowly dragging up pondrous merchantmen with a vast labour, which a single steamer would at once render unnecessary. It was among the first reforms of the sultan to introduce any European inventions which could assist human labour; and he not only encouraged the introduction of these boats, but he erected an arsenal in the harbour for building them by his own subjects. This spacious and novel ship-yard is under the superintendence of the laborious and patient Armenians, who are the great mechanics of the Turkish empire. Here they not only build the boats, but cast the machinery, which the stupid Moslems could not comprehend, till they saw their own sultan embark in the wonderful self-moving machine, that issued from their own arsenal, and swiftly climbed the rapids of the Bosphorus against both wind and tide.

A singular circumstance connected with the first introduction of steam-boats was the subject of universal conversation. An immense crowd had collected, as well to see the sultan, as the vessel in which he had embarked. When he stood upon the deck, a broad flag was displayed floating over his head, with the sun, the emblem of the Turkish empire, embroidered on it; but within the disc was worked a cross; and the pious Moslems saw, with fear and astonishment, their sultan sail under this Christian emblem. He had just before shown such indulgence and good-will to the rayas of that faith, that his enemies every where gave out, that, among his innovations, he was disposed to adopt it himself, and the present flag was a public display of it. It appeared, afterwards, that the unconscious sultan knew nothing of the emblem over his head. The sanguine Greeks of the arsenal had that morning inserted it in the midst of the sun; and so had exhibited it as another cross of Constantine, converting an infidel sovereign to Christianity.

Entering the harbour are always seen large rafts of timber, cut in the woods of the Black Sea, and conveyed down the Bosphorus. These floating islands are of considerable size, and navigated by companies of boatmen. They supply not only the wood for the arsenals, but the firing for the city. Some years ago, a coal-mine was discovered at Domosderé, not far from the mouth of the strait, and several tons of coal were bought and used by the Franks of Constantinople. But the Turks conceived a prejudice against its smoke, and refused to introduce any more; so it fell into disuse. The present sultan will not suffer this important acquisition to his steam-boats to be lost, and, it is said, he is about to avail himself of its advantages.

From this ever-moving surface of the “Golden Horn,” the city of Constantinople rises with singular beauty and majesty. The view of the city displays a mountain of houses, as far as the eye can reach: the seven hills form an undulating line along the horizon, crowned with imperial mosques, among which the grand Solimanie is the most conspicuous. These edifices are extraordinary structures, and, from their magnitude and position, give to Constantinople its most characteristic aspect. They consist of large square buildings, swelling in the centre into vast hemispherical domes, and crowned at the angles with four slender lofty minarets. The domes are covered with metal, and the spires cased in gilding, so that the one seems a canopy of glittering silver, and the other a shaft of burnished gold. Their magnitude is so comparatively great, and they cover such a space of ground, that they seem altogether disproportioned to every thing about them, and the contrast gives them an apparent size almost as great as the hills on which they stand.

Among the conspicuous objects arising above the rest, and mingling with the minarets of the mosques, are two tall towers, one on each side of harbour, called the “Janissaries’ Tower,” and the “Tower of Galata.” They command an extensive view over both peninsulas, and are intended for the purpose of watching fires, to which the city is constantly subject. Instead of a bell, a large drum is kept in a chamber on the summit, and when the watchman observes a fire, for which he is always looking out, he strikes the great drum with a mallet; and this kind of tolling produces a deep sound, which comes on the ear, particularly at night, with a tone singularly solemn and impressive.

The valleys between the hills are crossed by the ancient aqueduct of Valens, which conveys the water brought from the mountains of the Black Sea to the several cisterns of the city. The humidity oozing through the masonry, nourishes the roots of various plants, which, trailing down, form festoons with their long tendrils, and clothe the romantic arcades, which cross the streets, with a luxuriant drapery. Almost every house stands within an area planted with jujube, judas-tree, and other fruit and flowery shrubs peculiar to the soil and climate; so that the vast mass of building covering the sides and summits of the hills, is interspersed and chequered with the many hues displayed by the leaves, fruits, and flowers in their season. Of these the judas-tree affords the predominant colour. The burst of flowers from every part of it, in spring, at times actually gives a ruddy tint to the whole aspect of the city.

As there is no object of consumption in life so precious to a Turk as water, so there is none which he takes such care to provide, not only for himself, but for all other animals. Before his door he always places a vessel filled with water for the dogs of the street; he excavates stones into shallow cups, to catch rain for the little birds; and wherever a stream runs, or a rill trickles, he builds a fountain for his fellow-creature, to arrest and catch the vagrant current, that not a drop of the fluid should be wasted. These small fountains are numerous, and frequently executed with care and skill. They are usually fronted or backed with a slab of marble, ornamented with Turkish sculpture, and inscribed with some sentence from the Koran, inculcating practical charity and benevolence. The beneficent man at whose expense this is done, never allows his own name to make part of the inscription. A Turk has no ostentation in his charity; his favourite proverb is, “Do good, and throw it into the sea; and if the fish do not see it, Allah will.”

Among the many fountains which adorn the city, there are two on which the Turks seem to have exerted all their skill in sculpture. One in Constantinople near the Babu Hummayoun, or “the Great Gate of the Seraglio.” The other in Pera, near _Tophana_, or the “canon foundry.” They are beautiful specimens of the Arabesque, and highly decorated. That at Tophana, represented in the illustration, is particularly so. It is a square edifice with far-projecting cornices, surmounted by a balustrade along the four façades. These last are covered over with a profusion of sculpture, and every compartment, formed by the moulding, is filled with sentences from the Koran, and poetical quotations from Turkish, Persian, and Arabic authors. The following is a translation of some of the inscriptions. It was erected in 1732.

“This fountain descended from heaven−-erected in this suitable
place, dispenses its salutary waters on every side by ten
thousand channels.”

“Its pure and lucid streams attest its salubrity, and
its transparent current has acquired for it an universal
celebrity.”

“As long as Allah causes a drop of rain to descend into its
reservoir, the happy people who participate in its inestimable
benefits, shall waft praises of its virtues to that sky from
whence it came down.”

“It should be our prayer that the justice of a merciful God
should reward with happiness the author of this benevolent
undertaking, and have his deed handed down to a never-ending
posterity.”

“This exquisite work is before Allah a deed of high merit, and
indicates the piety of the Sultan Mahmoud.”−-1145.

The whole of the water department is under the direction of the _Sou Nazir_, or, “_president of water,_” who has under him the _Sou Ioldgi_, or “water engineers,” and the _Sacgees_, or “watermen.” The business of the first is to watch that the Bendts, &c. receive no damage, and are in constant repair; the second distributes the water over the city. They are supplied with leathern sacks, broad at one end and narrow at the other, somewhat like churns, and closed at the mouth with a leather strap; when it is filled at a fountain, it is thrown across the Sacgee’s back, the broad end resting on his hip, and the narrow on his shoulder; when he empties it, he opens the flap, stoops his head, and the water is discharged into some recipient. There are generally in every hall two vessels sunk in the ground, and covered with a stopper. These the Sacgee fills every day, and receives for his trouble about two paras, or half a farthing.