this history that these benefices are revocable at pleafure, though hereditary. They pass indeed to the eldest fon, when there is but one timar. When there are feveral, the children divide them between them by as many heads as there are fimars. But the emperor, or even the bafhaws in his name, can take them away without giving any reason for fo doing, whether from thofe to whom they have been given, or their pofterity. It is not fo with the lands that the grand feignior has been pleased to grant in the territory belonging to the fword of Othman, nor those which are fituated in the portion of the mofques. Thefe always go to the children unless the property of their father is confifcated. But in all cafes, a great part of the chattels of the officers of the Porte who die in fome place is seized by the grand feignior, who leaves the children just what he pleases of the furniture or money which their father is looked upon to have acquired in the fervice of the Porte.. This is what has made feveral travellers fay, that the Ottoman emperor is the fole proprietor in his empire, and the heir of all his fubjects. It is very certain however that he can put to death or ftrip of all his property whomfoever he fhall think fit to punish, without the form of a trial or even his crime being known for

The members of the ulema, called effendis, or men of the law, who ferve the mofques in qua

lity of imans, or who administer justice as cádis,

VOL. IV.

3 H

according

according to the words of the Alcoran, cannot be put to death; but the grand feignior finds means to elude this law, which may be confidered as fundamental, fince it is written in plain and exprefs terms, by giving the effendi a fuperior place in the divan, which removes him out of the ulema, and confequently deprives him of his privilege.

I have read in the writings of feveral travellers,, that the mufti or chief of the ulema, and all his effendis, are liable to be put to death in one manner only, which is, pounding them in a mortar. I have not observed any trace of this barbarity in all the courfe of the Turkish hiftory, nor feen any thing in the Alcoran that could give credit to this opinion.* The administration of justice, as well as of divine worship, belong entirely to the ulema; this gives that body confiderable power. But as the Turkish government is entirely military, and the finances as well as the troops are in the hands of bashaws and fangiacs, officers that compofe the divan, and even the prince's council, when they have reached the dignity of viziers, that is to fay, bafhaws of the first order, the minifters of the Alcoran have no other authority than to determine controverfies between private perfons. The mufti, or chief of the ulema, is certainly the perfon moft venerated

* We find, however, that Othman II. threatened twenty of the ulema, who waited on him to make remonftrances, to have them executed in this manner. See vol. II. page 349.*" T.

next to the grand feignior, but is far from being the most powerful. Indeed the emperor undertakes nothing confiderable without the mufti's having given his fetfa (they call so an opinion founded on fome text of the Alcoran); but when this fetfa is not favorable, the chief of the law is depofed, with more cafe even than a vizier would be; which often renders thefe pontiffs very complaifant and attentive to make the Alcoran bend to the will of their master.

To avoid tautology, I have not mentioned the Ottoman foldiery. We have feen in the course of this hiftory that it confifts in the firft place of timarians or holders of military benefices, who are obliged to entertain at their expence, and to conduct to the army or on the frontiers, in cafe of neceffity, a number of troopers, in proportion to the value of their timars. We have feen the fpahis, a cavalry better difciplined and more conftantly affembled together, paid out of the public treasury, contribute greatly to the numerous conquests which the emperors have made. We have feen the inftitution, the force, the fuccefs, the difcipline, or the undiscipline, of that formidable infantry called janiffaries. We have seen two corps lefs confiderable, the jebeggis and topggis, affift the janiffaries to enlarge the bounds of the empire, and make tremble, even depofe or emprison, him whom all the Ottomans confider as the most powerful of mortals. We have seen, in the courfe of the different wars, other troops 3 H 2 gathered

VOL. IV.

gathered together, who ferve in the moment of
neceffity only, and who might be compared to
the coaft-guards and arriere-ban in France, though
there is no nobility in Turkey. Thefe foldiers
fight on horseback or on foot, according to cir-
cumftances. They are fometimes called afaps,
fometimes zégbans: they are raifed and paid
rather badly by the bafhaws, who have very often
made an ill use of these forces, and stirred up the
provinces, and who, in the foreign wars, have
facrificed a number of afaps or zagbans, whom
the Muffulman religion and the fyftem of pre-
deftination had made valiant, but whose perfect
ignorance of military difcipline and little ac
quaintance with war rendered not very formi-
dable. For fear of abufing the attention of my
readers, I suppress the other details, and excuse
myself from placing here under their eyes what
they have already feen in the courfe of this
history,

END OF THE FOURTH VOLUME,

INDE X

TO THE FOUR VOLUMES;

In which will be found

An Explanation of feveral Turkish Words

Made ufe of in the course of this work.

The numeral capitals refer to the volume; the small numeral letters to the pages
of the Hiftorical Difcourfe; and the figures to those of the History.