PART II.
AJOURNEY TO INDIA, &c.
AJOURNEY TO INDIA, &c.
A
JOURNEY TO INDIA, &c.
My dear Frederick,
So long as the route of my journey lay through European regions, little presented itself respecting human nature of such very great novelty as to excite admiration or awaken curiosity. In all the various Nations through which we have passed, a certain parity of sentiment, arising from the one great substratum, Christianity, gave the same general colouring to all the scenes, however they might differ from each other in their various shadings. Whatever dissimilitude the influence of accident, climate, or local circumstance, may, in the revolutions of ages, have introduced into their manners, customs, municipal laws, and exterior forms ofworship—the great Code of Religion and Moral Sentiment remains nearly the same with all: and right and wrong, good and evil, being defined by the same principles of reason, and ascertained by the same boundaries, bring the rule of conduct of each to so close an approximation with that of the others, that, when compared with those we are now to attend to, they may really be considered as one and the same people.
In the Empire now before us, were we to leave our judgment to the guidance of general opinion of Christian Nations, we should have, on the contrary, to contemplate Man under a variety of forms and modifications, so entirely different from those to which habit has familiarised our minds, as at first to impress us with the idea of a total disruption from our nature, and induce us, as it has already the generality of our people, to divorce them from a participation of all those sympathetic feelings which serve to inforce the discharge of mutual good offices among men. Deducing all their principles, not only of moral conduct, but municipal government, from a religion radically different from, and essentially adverse to, ours; deluded by that system into a variety of opinions which liberality itself must think absurd; unaided by that enlightened philosophy which learning, and learned men, acting under the influence of comparative Freedom, and assisted by the art of Printing, have diffused through the mass of Europeans; and living under a climate the most unfavourable to intellectual or bodily exertion, they exhibita spectacle which the philosophic and liberal mind must view with disapprobation, regret and pity—the illiberal fierce Christian with unqualified detestation and disgust: while, on their part, bigoted to their own principles and opinions, they look on us with abhorrence, and indulge as conscientious a contempt of, and antipathy to Christians, which I apprehend no lapse of time, without a great change of circumstance, will be able to eradicate. Should Mahomedanism and Christianity ever happen to merge in Deism (but not otherwise), the inhabitants of Syria and Europe will agree to consider each other even as fellow-creatures. In Spain and Portugal, Jew, Turk, and indeed Protestant, are without distinction called hogs. In Turkey, Jews and Christians are indiscriminately called dogs; each thinking the other completely excluded from the pale of humanity, and well worthy the dagger of anyTRUE BELIEVERwho would have thepietyto apply it.
You will allow, my dearFrederick, that it must have been rather an important contemplation to your Father, to have perhaps two thousand miles to travel through the immense and almost trackless wilds of a country inhabited by such people, without the consolation of any others to accompany him in his journey; for, unless a public dispatch was to overtake me, there was little probability of my having a single European partner of my fatigue and perils.
However, as the period was not yet arrived at which I was to go forward, or even determine my mode of travelling, I endeavouredto soothe my mind as much as I could into content, and to take advantage of my stay at Aleppo, to acquire all the knowledge possible of the place, that is to say, of that city in particular, and of the Turkish government and manners in general.
A distant view of Aleppo fills the mind with expectations of great splendour and magnificence. The mosques, the towers, the large ranges of houses with flat roofs, rising above each other, according to the sloping hills on which they stand, the whole variegated with beautiful rows of trees, form altogether a scene magnificent, gay, and delightful: but, on entering the town, all those expected beauties vanish, and leave nothing in the streets to meet the eye, but a dismal succession of high stone walls, gloomy as the recesses of a convent or state prison, and unenlivened by windows, embellished, as with us, by the human face divine. The streets themselves, not wider than some of the meanest alleys in London, overcast by the height of the prison-houses on either side, are rendered still more formidably gloomy by the solitude and silence that pervade them; while here and there a lattice towards the top, barely visible, strikes the soul with the gloomy idea of thraldom, coercion and imprisonment.
This detestable mode of building, which owes its origin to jealousy, and the scandalous restraints every man is empowered by the laws and religion of the place to impose upon the women consigned either by sale or birth to his tyranny, extends not to theinside of the houses, many of which are magnificent and handsome, and all admirably suited to the exigencies of the climate, and the domestic customs and manner of living of the inhabitants.
The city is adorned, it is true, here and there, with mosques and appendant towers, called Minarets, from which cryers call the Faithful to prayers; and in some of the streets there are arches built at certain distances from each other, so as to carry the eye directly through them, and form a vista of considerable grandeur: but all these are far from sufficient to counterbalance the general aspect of gloominess and solitude which reigns over the whole, and renders it so peculiarly disgusting, particularly at first sight, to an Englishman who has enjoyed the gaiety and contemplated the freedom of a city in Great Britain.
The mosques (Mahomedan temples) are extremely numerous in this city; indeed almost as much so as churches and convents in the popish countries of Christendom. There is nothing in their external appearance to attract the notice of the traveller, or indulge the eye of the architect; they are almost all of one form—an oblong quadrangle: and as to the inside, I never had an opportunity of seeing one; none but Mussulmen being permitted to enter them, at least at Aleppo.
The next buildings of a public kind to the mosques that deserve to be particularly mentioned, are the caravanseras—buildings which, whether we consider the spirit of beneficence and charity that firstsuggested them, their national importance, or their extensive utility, may rank, though not in splendour of appearance, at least in true value, with any to be found in the world.
Caravanseras were originally intended for, and are now pretty generally applied to, the accommodation of strangers and travellers, though, like every other good institution, sometimes perverted to the purposes of private emolument or public job: they are built at proper distances through the roads of the Turkish dominions, and afford the indigent or weary traveller an asylum from the inclemency of the weather; are in general very large, and built of the most solid and durable materials; have commonly one story above the ground floor, the lower of which is arched, and serves for warehouses to stow goods, for lodgings and for stables, while the upper is used merely for lodgings; besides which, they are always accommodated with a fountain, and have cooks shops and other conveniencies to supply the wants of the lodgers. In Aleppo the Caravanseras are almost exclusively occupied by merchants, to whom they are, like other houses, rented.
The suburbs of Aleppo, and the surrounding country, are very handsome, pleasant, and, to a person coming out of the gloomy city, in some respects interesting. Some tossed about into hill and valley lie under the hands of the husbandman; others are covered with handsome villas; and others again laid out in gardens, whither the people of Aleppo occasionally resort for amusement.
The roofs of all the houses are flat, and formed of a composition which resists the weather effectually. On those most of the people sleep in the very hot weather: they are separated from each other by walls; but the Franks, who live contiguous to one another, and who, from their disagreeable circumstances with regard to the Turks, are under the necessity of keeping up a friendly and harmonious intercourse together, have doors of communication, which are attended with these fortunate and pleasing advantages, that they can make a large circuit without descending into the streets, and can visit each other during the plague, without running the risk of catching the infection by going among the natives below.
There is a castle in the city which I had nearly forgotten to mention—The natives conceive it to be a place of great strength. It could not, however, withstand the shock of a few pieces of ordnance for a day. It is esteemed a favour to be permitted to see it; and there is nothing to recompense one for the trouble of obtaining permission, unless it be the prospect of the surrounding country, which from the battlements is extensive and beautiful.
Near this castle stands the Seraglio, a large old building, where the Bashaw of Aleppo resides: the whole of it seemed to me to be kept in very bad repair, considering the importance of the place. It is surrounded by a strong wall of great height: besides which, its contiguity to the castle is very convenient; as, in case of popular tumults, or intestine commotions, the Bashaw finds an asylum in thelatter, which commands and overawes the city, and is never without a numerous garrison under the command of an Aga.
Such is the summary account I have been able to collect of Aleppo, the capital of Syria; which, mean though it is when compared with the capitals of European countries, is certainly the third city for splendour, magnificence, and importance, in the vast extent of the Ottoman Empire—Constantinople and Grand Cairo only excelling it in those points, and no other bearing any sort of competition with it.
However faction may agitate, or abuse irritate the minds of men against the executive branch of their Government, the People of every Nation under Heaven are disposed to think their own Constitutional System the best; and the artful intertexture of religion with Governments confirms them in that opinion, and often consigns the understanding to unalterable error and illiberal prejudice. It would be wonderful, then, if the Turkish Constitution, founded on the Koran, was not looked upon with abhorrenceby the bulk of the Christian world; and more wonderful still, if the outrageous zealots of the Christian Church, who for so many centuries engrossed all the learning of Europe to themselves, should not have handed down with exaggerated misrepresentation every circumstance belonging to the great enemies of their faith. But that, at this day of intellectual illumination, Mankind should be enveloped in such error and darkness, with regard to the government of so large a portion of the globe as Turkey, is extraordinary; and only to be accounted for by a reference, in the first place, to those religious prejudices which we suck in from our nurse, and which habit, incessant document, and every part of our education, tend to confirm in our minds; and in the next, to that indisposition the human mind feels to part with its old prejudices, and the general indolence and incapacity of men to acquire knowledge by the arduous and fatiguing paths of study.
The Turkish Government is grossly misrepresented. Were our opinions to be directed by the general belief of Europeans, we should suppose that the life and property of every being in that vast Empire were irremediably at the mercy of the Grand Seignior—and that, without laws to protect, or any intermediate power whatever to shield them, they were entirely subject to the capricious will of an inexorable tyrant, who, stimulated by cruelty, sharpened by avarice, and unrestrained by any law human or divine, did every thing to oppress his subjects, and carry destruction amongMankind. I firmly believe, that, from the combination of ideas arising from those prejudices, there are few Christians who think or hear of the Grand Turk, that do not, by an involuntary act of the mind, instantly think of blood and murder, strangling with bowstrings, and slicing off heads with cimeters.
As there is no part of your education more near my heart than the eradicating illiberal prejudices from your mind, and fortifying you against their assaults; I find it impossible to refrain from giving you my opinion of the Turkish Government, which I have been at some pains to collect, as well from oral information as from the best authors; and which, though very far from what a generous and universally philanthropic disposition would wish them to have, is very different from that which is generally attributed to them, and unquestionably far more limited in its powers than the Governments of several Christian countries I could mention.
The Constitution of that country is laid down expressly in the Koran. The Emperor of Turkey (commonly called the Grand Seignior) is a descendant of Mahomet, who pretended he had the Koran from Heaven: and he is as much bound by the institutes of that book as any subject in his realm—is liable to deposition as they to punishment for breach of them, and indeed has been more than once deposed, and the next in succession raised to the Throne. Thus far, it is obvious, his power is limited and under controul. But that is not all—It is equally certain that the Turkish Government ispartly Republican; for, though the People at large have no share in the legislation, and are excluded by the Koran from it (which Koran has established and precisely ascertained their rights, privileges, and personal security), yet there is an intermediate power which, when roused to exertion, is stronger than the Emperor’s, and stands as a bulwark between the extremes of Despotism and them. This body isthe Ulama, composed of all the members of the Church and the Law, superior to any Nobility, jealous of their rights and privileges, and partly taken from the People, not by election, but by profession and talents.—In this body are comprised the Moulahs, the hereditary and perpetual guardians of the religion and laws of the Empire: they derive their authority as much as the Emperor from the Koran, and, when necessary, act with all the firmness resulting from a conviction of that authority; which they often demonstrate by opposing his measures, not only with impunity, but success. Their persons are sacred; and they can, by means of the unbounded respect in which they are held, rouse the People to arms, and proceed to depose. But, what is much more, the Emperor cannot be deposed without their concurrence.
If, by this provision of the Constitution, the power of the Monarch is limited, and the personal security of the subject ascertained, on the one hand; the energy of the Empire in its external operations is, on the other, very frequently and fatally palsied by it. Declarations of war have been procrastinated, till an injurious andirrecoverable act of hostility has been sustained; and peace often protracted, when peace would have been advantageous. The Ulama being a numerous body, it has been found always difficult, often impossible, to unite so many different opinions; and nothing being to be done without their concurrence, the executive power finds it often impossible to take a decisive step in a crisis of advantageous opportunity. But as this code of laws and government is received as a divine revelation, binding both Prince and People, and supposed to be sealed in Heaven, the breach of it would be sufficient to consign even the Monarch to deposition and death.
As to the military force, which in the hands of all Despots has been made the instrument of the People’s slavery, that of the Turk could avail him nothing; and, whenever it does interfere, acts only to his overthrow. The very reverence they have for his person arising from obedience to their religion, they are,à fortiori, governed by it, not him. He holds no communication with them; and the standing force of the Janissaries is, compared with the mass of the People, only a handful. Some wild accounts, indeed, have stated it at 300,000; but the best informed fix it below 60,000, of which a great part consists of false musters and abuses—great multitudes being enrolled to obtain certain privileges annexed to the office of Janissary. The fact is, that the chief force of the Empire is a militia composed of the People; who, with respect to obedience and subordination, are so loose that they leave their duty wheneverthey please, without receiving any punishment. How far the People of Turkey are protected from the encroachments of power, will appear from the recital of a fact related by one of the best and most liberal of our Historians on that subject, and which is of too great notoriety to be doubted.
In the year 1755, the Porte, as it is called, or Palace of the Grand Vizir at Constantinople, was burnt down: in laying the plan for rebuilding it on the former site, the leading consideration was, how to contrive matters so as to render it secure from accidents of a like nature in future; and it was determined that the only certain means to do so was, to leave a space of clear ground all round it, for which purpose the contiguous houses should be purchased from the proprietors, and demolished. All the owners of the houses agreed to the sale, except one old woman, who pertinaciously refused: she said she was born, and had lived all her life, in that spot, and would not quit it for any one. Now, in England, for the convenience of a private canal, the Parliament would force her to sell. But what did they say in Turkey? When all the people cried out, “Why does not the Sultan use his authority, and take the house, and pay her the value?” No! answered the Magistrates and the Ulama, it is impossible! it cannot be done! it is her property. While the power of the Monarch is thus limited, and the rights of the People thus ascertained by the Koran, and in things manifest and open to view rigidly adhered to, justice between man and manis rarely administered; for, though the laws themselves are good, the corrupt administration of them disarms their effect, and distorts them from their purpose. The venality of the Judges is beyond conception flagitious and barefaced; and their connivances at false witnesses so scandalously habitual, that testimony is become an article of commerce, and can be procured with a facility and at a price that at once stamps an opprobrium on the country, and furnishes matter of wonder to the considerate mind, how, if Judges are flagitious and shameless enough to be guilty of it, the People can bear such a pernicious system so long. Hence flow all the censures on the laws and government of that country—hence most of the impediments under which its commerce and agriculture languish; while the actual written laws of the realm are, if duly administered, sufficiently adequate to the security of property, the regulation of commerce, the repression of vice, and the punishment and prevention of crimes.
In endeavouring to guard your mind against an illiberal, vulgar prejudice, I have stated to you what the Turkish Constitution is, and what the Laws; but you must not carry what I have said to an overstrained or forced interpretation. I would not have you infer that the People are well governed; I only say, that their Constitution contains within it the means of better government than is supposed. I would not have you infer that property is always secure; I barely say there are laws written to secure it. This too I wish toimpress on you, that the common people are more free, and that property and life are better secured, in Turkey, than in some European countries. I will mention Spain for one. Like the country we are now contemplating, fear keeps them, as disunited individuals, under passive obedience in ordinary cases; but, unlike the Spaniards, when notoriously aggrieved—when their property or religious code is forcibly violated—when the Prince would riot in blood, and persist in an unsuccessful war—the Turks appeal to the Law; they find a Chief; the soldiery join their standard, and depose or destroy him, not on the furious pretext of popular hatred, but upon the legitimate ground of the Koran, as an infidel, and a violator of the laws ofGodand Mahomet—They always, however, place his regular successor on the Throne. Yet, notwithstanding the general venality which pollutes the fountains of Justice, and notwithstanding the great abuse of power to which I have alluded, their internal policy is, in many respects, excellent, and may be compared with advantage to that of any Nation in Europe. Highway-robbery, house-breaking, or pilfering, are little known and rarely practised among them; and at all times the roads are as secure as the houses. Ample provisions too are made against those petty secret frauds, which many who carry a fair face in England, and would bring an action of damages against one that should call them rogues, practise every day. Bakers are the most frequent victims of justice, and are not infrequently seen hanging at their own doors. They aremulcted and bastinadoed for the first and second offence, and on the third, a staple is driven up in their door-case, and they are hanged from it. Notwithstanding which, men are constantly found hardy enough to pursue the same course of practice; and this is the more extraordinary, as the police is so strictly attended to, that the Bashaw or Vizir himself goes about in disguise, in order to discover frauds and detect the connivances of the inferior officers of justice. But what wilt our great Ladies, who consume their nights, destroy their constitution, and squander their husbands’ property in gambling; who afterwards, to repair their shattered finances, have recourse to the infamous expedient of keeping gaming-houses, and endeavour to recover by degrading means what they have lost by folly, to the disgrace of themselves and family, and the shame of their sex and rank—What will they say when I tell them, that gaming is held among the Turks to be as infamous as theft, and a gamester looked upon with more detestation than a highway robber? The Turkish Ambassador and his train will, on their return to their country, have to tell a curious tale of this much-famed island, in that and other respects.
Prejudice, that canker of the human heart, has injured mankind by impeding personal intercourse, and thereby clogging the channel of intellectual improvement: it forbids that interchange of sentiment—that reciprocal communication of opinion—that generous circulation of intellectual wealth, which, while it enriches another, advances itself—it dissevers the bond of social union, and makes Man sit down the gloomy, selfish possessor of his own miserable mite, with too much hatred to give, and too much pride to receive, those benefits, which Providence, by leaving our nature so unaccommodated, has pointed out as necessary to pass between man and man: under its influence we spurn from us the good, if we dislike the hand that offers it, and will rather plunge into the mire than be guided by the light of any one whose opinion is at variance with our own.
Thus it is between the Turks and us—the little of their affairs which the prejudices of the Mahomedans have allowed themselves to communicate, or suffered others to glean among them, has been ingeneralgeneralso misused, distorted, and misrepresented by the prejudices of the Christians, that it is not going beyond the truth to say, there exist not a people in the civilized world whose real history and genuine state are so little known as those of the Turks: and the worst of it is, that not one misrepresentation, not one single mistake has fallen on the generous, charitable side; but all, all without exception tend to represent the Turk in the most degraded and detestable point of view. As the purity of the Christian does not allow him to be guilty of a wilful, uncharitable misrepresentation, we should attribute it to unavoidable error, were it not that, till some late authors whose liberality does them honour, they all walked in the very same track, and could hardly have been so uniformly erroneous from design. We must therefore attribute it to religious zeal and mistaken piety; in which, in this instance alone, they seem to be reputable competitors with the Turks. The moroseness, the animosity, and the supercilious self-possession of the bigot, each holds in common with the other.
One striking feature in the Constitution of Turkey is, that neither blood nor splendid birth are of themselves sufficient to recommend a man to great offices. Merit and abilities alone are the pinions which can lift ambition to its height. The cottager may be exalted to the highest office in the Empire; at least there is no absolute impediment in his way; and I believe it has often happened. Compare this with France under its late Monarchy, where no meritcould raise a man from the Canaille: this, I say, is one of the criterions of a free Constitution, and Turkey is so far democratic.
The very first principle ingrafted in the minds of the Mahomedan children, is a high contempt of all religions but their own; and from the minute babes are capable of distinguishing, they are taught to call Christians by the name of Ghiaour, or Infidel: this grows up in their manhood so strong in them, that they will follow a Christian through the streets, and even justle against him with contempt, crying, Ghiaour! Ghiaour! or Infidel! Infidel!—Men of dignity and rank, indeed, will treat Christians with courtesy; but as soon as they are gone out of hearing, will call them Dog! This is monstrous! But let us recollect how a Turk would be treated in Spain or Portugal, and we shall see that inhuman bigotry may be found in a greater degree among Christians than even Mahomedans. In Spain or Portugal they would treat them thus:—the common people would call them Hogs; they would justle them also in contempt; and what is more, they would stab them (it has often happened)por amor de Dios; and as to the people of rank, they would very conscientiously consign them to the Inquisition, where the pious Fathers of the Church would very piously consign them to the flames, and coolly go to the Altar, and pray toGodto damn them hereafter to all eternity. So far the balance, I think, is in favour of the Turks. Need I go farther?—I will.—
The Mahomedans are divided into two Sects, as the Christiansare into many. Those are the Sect of Ali, and the Sect of Omar. Now, I have never heard among them of one Sect burning the other deliberately: but the Roman Catholics, even now, burn Protestants by juridical sentence—burn their fellow Christians to death for differing from them in a mere speculative point of doctrine. Which then are the better men? I am sure it is unnecessary to say: though bad are the best.
The Turks are allowed, by those who know them best, to have some excellent qualities; and I think, that in the prodigality of our censure, which, though little acquainted with them, we are forward to bestow, it would be but fair to give them credit for many of those good qualities, which even among ourselves it requires the greatest intimacy and the warmest mutual confidence and esteem to disclose or discover in each other. That they have many vices is certain. What people are they that have not? Gaming they detest; wine they use not, or at least use only a little, and that by stealth; and as to the plurality of women, it can in them be scarcely deemed a vice, since their religion allows it. One vice, and one only, of a dark dye is laid to their charge; and that has been trumpeted forth with the grievous and horrid addition, that though contradictory to nature, it was allowed by their religion. This I have reason to believe is one of the many fabrications and artifices of Christian zealots, to render Mahomedanism more odious: for I have been informed from the most competent and respectable authority, and amtherefore persuaded, that the detestable crime to which I allude, is forbidden both by the Koran and their Municipal Laws; that it is openly condemned by all, as with us; and that, though candour must allow there are many who practise it (by the bye there are too many in England who are supposed to do the same), there are none hardy or shameless enough not to endeavour to conceal it; and, in short, that it is apparently as much reprobated there as any where; which, at all events, rescues the Laws and Religion of the Country from that stigma.
Perhaps there is no part of the world where the flame of parental affection burns with more ardent and unextinguishable strength, or is more faithfully returned by reciprocal tenderness and filial obedience, than Turkey. Educated in the most unaffected deference and pious submission to their parents’ will; trained both by precept and example to the greatest veneration for the aged, and separated almost from their infancy from the women, they acquire a modesty to their superiors, and a bashfulness and respectful deportment to the weaker sex, which never cease to influence them through life. A Turk meeting a woman in the street, turns his head from her, as if looking at her were criminal; and there is nothing they detest so much, or will more sedulously shun, than an impudent, audacious woman. To get the better of a Turk therefore, there is nothing further necessary, than to let slip a Virago at him, and he instantly retreats.
Since the arrival of the Turkish Ambassador in London, I have had frequent occasion to observe, that the people of his train have been already, by the good example of our British Belles and Beaux, pretty much eased of their national modesty, and can look at the women with as broad and intrepid a stare, as the greatest puppy in the Metropolis.
Their habitual tenderness and deference for the fair sex, while it speaks much for their manly gallantry, must be allowed by candour to be carried to an excess extravagant and irrational. It is the greatest disgrace to the character of a Turk to lift his hand to a woman: this is, doubtless, right, with some limitations; but they carry it so far as to allow no provocation, be it what it may, sufficient to justify using force or strokes to a woman; the utmost they can do is, to scold and walk off. The consequence of this is, that the women often run into the most violent excesses. There have been instances where they have been guilty of the most furious outrages; where they have violated the laws in a collected body, and broke open public stores of corn laid up by the Government: the Magistrates attended, the Janissaries were called, and came running to quell the riot—but, behold they were women who committed it: they knew no way of resisting them, unless by force; and force they could not use: so the ladies were permitted quietly to do their work in defiance of Magistrates, Law, Right, and Reason.
Among the variety of errors and moral absurdities falselyascribed to the Mahomedan Religion, the exclusion of Women from Paradise holds a very conspicuous place, as a charge equally false and absurd; on the contrary, the Women have their fasts, their ablutions, and the other religious rites deemed by Mahomedans necessary to salvation. Notwithstanding, it has been the practice of travellers to have recourse to invention, where the customs of the country precluded positive information; and to give their accounts rather from the suggestions of their own prejudiced imaginations, than from any fair inferences or conclusions drawn from the facts that came under their observation.
The subject I touched upon in my last three letters, and on which this, and probably some succeeding ones, will turn, is attended with circumstances of great delicacy, and may possibly bear the aspect of at least a dubious import, as touching the great point of Religion. I will therefore, before I proceed further, explain to you (lest it should require explanation) the whole scope of my meaning.
My object throughout the whole of what I have said respecting the Turks, is to war with prejudice, not to draw comparisons:—to shew that where the Mahomedans are vicious or enslaved, it is not the fault of their Religion or their Laws:—to convince you, the Turks are not the only people in the world, who, under all the external forms of sanctity and religion, are capable of the most detestable crimes, and sometimes utterly bereft of all pretensions to charity—and that, while they have been held up as a perpetual subject of reproach and accusation, they were committing only just the same crimes that conscience might have retorted on their accusers. If allowance can be at all made for historical misrepresentation, we may perhaps be disposed to consider that of the ignorant Catholic Missionaries of the early ages, as entitled to some excuse, or at least mitigation. The intemperate zeal of those times forbade the full exercise of the rational faculties; but in this age of illumination and liberality, he that falsifies from polemical malice should meet little quarter and less belief. And it must be grievous to all men of virtue and religion to reflect, that churchmen, disciples of the Christian Church, which should be the fountain of purity and truth, have been foremost in the list of falsifiers.
The difficulty of obtaining information of any kind in Turkey, is very great; of their Religion chiefly they are extremely tenacious; and as to their Women, it is allowed by the best-informed men, who have lived there for many years, in departments of lifethat gave them the best means of obtaining information Europeans can have, that, at best, but a very imperfect knowledge can be had of them. Yet travellers who probably never migrated farther than “from the green bed to the brown,” have given us diffuse accounts of their religion; and adventurers who never were beyond the purlieus of Drury, have scaled Seraglio walls, and carried off the favourites of Sultans.
The truth is, my dearFrederick, the Turks, like all other people, have their share of vices, but are by no means countenanced in them by their Religion; and from what I have been able to collect, as well from my own inquiries and observations, as from reading the best Historians, I am persuaded that they have not, in the whole scope of Mahomedanism, one doctrine so subversive of virtue, or so encouraging to the indulgence of vice, as many that are to be found in that curious code, Popery.
The malice of our intemperate zealots against Mahomedanism has been of course extended to its founder with more than common exaggeration and additions. They have represented Mahomet to be a man of mean origin, possessing a mind unenlightened by Science or Literature, and an understanding and faculties naturally gross. All those suggestions are undoubtedly false;—he sprung from the most noble of all the Arabian Tribes—the Coraishites: at his time, poverty, so far from being a reproach among them, was a mark of every thing that was great and dignified, if supported with magnanimityand fortitude; and the two first Caliphs lived as poor as Mahomet himself, although they had immense revenues, commanded vast armies, and were lords of great provinces. As to his understanding I can only say, that perhaps he was the very last man in the world whose intellectual powers should be called in question. His genius was unbounded, his spirit enterprising, his powers of address were unequalled, he was allowed to be the greatest orator of his time; and yet, with all these qualifications, his understanding was slighted. It is a logical truth, that when people prove too much, they prove nothing at all: our Christian zealots, in this instance, have overshot the mark, and thereby rendered all their other information at least doubtful. Perhaps the consummation of all policy was Mahomet’s pretending to be an idiot, in order to make his great and wonderful effusions appear to be the immediate inspiration of Heaven—He called himselfthe Idiot Prophet[1].
1. Mohammed.
1. Mohammed.
The whole of Mahomedanism may be reduced simply to this one article of Faith—“There is but oneGod, andMahometis his Prophet;” but upon this they have superinduced, from time to time, such a variety of absurdities as would require volumes to describe: however, in strict candour let us reflect, and ask our own hearts the question, whether sprinkling with holy water, or worshiping a bit of white wafer asGod, can be exceeded, or are less absurdthan the periodical ablutions of the Turks, or their going on a pilgrimage to Mecca?
With regard to the Women, I have said before that the best information we can obtain is very imperfect; all I have been able to collect, you shall have. They are formed in a style of the most exquisite symmetry, particularly about the chest and bosom; they have delicate skins, regular features, black hair and eyes, and are, above all other beings, cleanly and neat in their persons, bathing twice a day regularly, besides on other occasions, and not suffering even the smallest hair to remain upon their bodies. They are kept in the most rigorous confinement, and only persons of ill fame paint. Women of character are there chaste—nor is their chastity to be attributed to restraint merely, for, from their infancy they are trained to discretion and self-subjection, and the modesty natural to the sex is cherished from its first dawnings. When they grow up, they are not, like our women here, subjected to the contagion of infamous gallantry; neither are the men trained to, nor do they pride themselves, like some among us, on the arts of seduction. In fact, that practice makes no part of the accomplishments of their fine gentlemen; nay, it is held by them to be infamous. There are no such characters to be found in Turkey as your box-lobby loungers—none of your upstart cubs like those who daudle the best part of the day through Pall-Mall, St. James’s-street, and Bond-street; who, without birth, wealth, education, or parts, fancy themselves fine fellows,and powder their noses in Ladies’ head-dresses, whispering them in order to get the reputation of gallantry; who strut like Bantam cocks, and assume a fierce air to conceal their conscious want of spirit; and dressed in a suit of regimentals, bought by Papa, at Mama’s request, to exhibit sweet Master Jacky to advantage in the Park—though never to be soiled with gunpowder, or perforated with a ball in the nasty field of battle!!!—My dearFrederick, I have often told you that you shall make choice of your own profession. If you should choose any of the learned professions, you may fail in it without dishonour; for many of the ablest men have failed before: but, mark me! avoid the military as you would ruin, unless you have the requisites; let not the glitter of a scarlet coat, or the empty name of a soldier, tempt you to be like one of those miserable animals I have described. There may be characters more wicked—I know none so utterly contemptible.
All extremes are bad; but the exceedings of virtue, even where they run into error, are still preferable to vice. However ludicrous it may appear, we cannot absolutely despise or condemn the prudery of the Turkish women, though it runs into such extravagance, that, when feeding their poultry, they keep carefully veiled if there happens to be a cock among them, so fastidiously averse are they to the odious male creature seeing their pretty faces.
When the circumstances under which the Turkish women stand are considered, it must appear amazing, that chastity, from principle,is universal among them, as it is confessed to be: the nature of man urges him to desire, with greatest ardour, that which is most forbidden; and women who are much confined, may well be supposed to have their passions inflamed by the exaggerated workings of the imagination. Infidelity, however, to the marriage-bed, is much less frequent among the men there, than among the women here; and the tide of fashion, which in this country gives such a rapid and irresistible circulation to vice and adultery, runs there in an opposite direction; and contrary to our customs, no man is so unfashionable in Turkey as he that has interrupted the domestic peace of a family by seduction.
Among the many virtues which may with strict justice be ascribed to the Turks, hospitality holds a conspicuous place. It is not confined to common civility, it extends to personal protection. Many deem it absolutely their duty to risk their lives in defence of their guests; nor will any motive, however cogent, be allowed to justify the violation of it. Nay, to such a system is it carried up, that an engagement with a stranger is accepted as an excuse for not obeying the summons of a great man, when no other apology, not even that of indisposition, would be admitted.
While the Turks abhor and despise all other religions but their own, their Government is by no means intolerant in spiritual concerns. The exercise of all religions is free, and at Constantinople (we are told) Monks dress in their habits, and are allowed at funeralprocessions to elevate the Cross, which is more than the English tyranny allowed the Roman Catholics of Ireland to do, till very lately: a Turk, however, convicted of apostacy, could not by any means escape death. Meantime it must be observed, that if they keep up a decent semblance of the forms of their religion, no intrusive inquiry is made into their real faith: and though it is one of the injunctions of Mahomet to endeavour to convert Unbelievers, and they sometimes in obedience to that command solicit the conversion of Christians and others; they never fail to consider any renegado, or person who becomes a convert, with contempt, if not dislike.
I will conclude this letter with an extract from that most valuable and accurate work, Russel’s History of Aleppo, which will give you a better, because a true, notion of Turkish morals, than you are likely to receive from general opinion. “Upon the whole,” says he, “whether it be ascribed to the influence of their political Constitution, or to the absence of various temptations, which in Europe often lead to the violation of better laws; there are perhaps few great cities where many of the private and domestic virtues are in general more prevalent than at Aleppo.”
The use of periodical stated times of devotion is universally admitted, and the necessity of adopting them makes a part of the Christian Code. The Mahomedan Religion, however, exceeds it far in the rigid attention to, and frequency of, devotion. There are no less than five stated times of prayer in every twenty-four hours, fixed as indispensable, at none of which a true Believer fails; and the fervency of their praying exceeds even the frequency. I have heard it asserted, that if the house was to take fire while they are at their devotion, they would not break off; and so rigidly intent do they conceive it their duty to be during the time of prayer, that if in the midst of it they were interrupted by a fit of sneezing or coughing, they consider all already done as gone for nothing, and always begin them again.—And to tell a truth of them, if the Christians curse them, they are pretty even with them in return, never failing to pray for discord, enmity, and dissension among their enemies, as well as health and prosperity to themselves; and to the efficacy of those prayers they fondly attribute allthe wars and dissensions which incessantly harass Christendom. A bell tolls as a public notice of prayer; and when a true Mahomedan hears it, let him be where he will, whether at home or abroad, in the highway or in the market, be the place dirty or clean, wet or dry, he immediately falls down and worships.
As subsidiary to prayer they have their ablutions, in which they are full as scrupulously punctual as in their prayers. One is preparatory to prayer, another after cohabitation with women, a third before eating, and another again incidental. Those they never neglect to perform, unless some insuperable obstacle lies in the way. Charity, that most glorious doctrine of any Religion, is enjoined by the Koran under the most heavy denunciation of heavenly vengeance, in case of neglect; and by it they are charged to regard no bounds in liberality to the poor. Many Mussulmen in their zeal to discharge this duty have given a fourth, many a third, and some one half of their property. Nay, the instances are not infrequent of men giving away their all, and living afterwards themselves upon alms. To do strict justice it must be said, that poverty is no where so respectfully attended to, honoured, or reverenced, as among the Mahomedans; who have a saying among them, “that the fear of want is a mark of the judgment ofGod.”
Abstinence is considered as a virtue among them, and very strictly enjoined as a religious duty. The great Fast appointed by the Koran continues for the month of Ramedan, during which time they neithereat, drink, nor converse with their wives, from sun-rise till the stars appear, or the lamps are hung out at the Mosques. Any man who breaks it is punished with death; but the worst of it is, that they will not allow even travellers, the sick or the wounded, to plead a right to exemption: some of the Turks, however, and all the Christians, have hit upon expedients to pass the month without much mortification; that is, sleeping in bed all day, and sitting up and carousing all night, to evade the restraint.
The last and greatest ordinance of their religion is the pilgrimage to Mecca, which when once accomplished is supposed to be a direct passport to Heaven; and there are few of them who do not at one time or other of their lives take that painful and hazardous journey. As this is a very interesting journey, however, to travel in the closet, as it includes the description of a caravan, and serves to shew to what extremities enthusiasm can influence men, I will give you a description of it as handed to me by a very accurate and ingenious person, on whose precise veracity I can rely; first making some remarks upon the preceding part of this letter.
You will observe from what I have already said, that, excepting the mere points of religious faith, the moral ordinances of Mahomedanism comprehend most of those parts of the Christian religion, on the practice of which the reputation of piety is founded; and that for strict obedience to those ordinances the Mahomedans are more remarkable than we are. Adultery is not frequent among them; wineis seldom or never used; theft is little known; so is murder. Then in the practical parts of devotion, there are in the first place prayers; secondly, abstinence or fasting; thirdly, charity. Those are all Christian doctrines, more zealously observed by them than by us. Their ablutions are at least no injury to the cause of morality or piety; but rather, being done as a religious exercise, serve to keep up the series of intercourse which should subsist between the Creature and his Creator: besides, I cannot help thinking with our inimitable poet Thomson, that