TURKISH EMPIRE

TURKISH EMPIRE. Although this empire has undergone but slight alterations since the account of it contained in the Encyclopædia was written, yet, as its statistics have had some new light thrown on them by recent publications, we shall give a brief sketch of its present state.

The extent of this empire has been variously estimated by different writers; and, after consulting them, we rather concur in the calculations made by Hassel, the latest of them, founded on the charts of Reichart and Niedls, because they are corroborated by the last map constructed by Arrowsmith, and by that of Lapiess. In this account of the extent of the empire we have included all those countries over which Turkey claims the sovereignty, although in many of them that sovereignty is either not acknowledged or very feebly exercised.

In countries where no censuses have been taken in modern times, in which no registers of births or deaths are preserved, where no general conscription has been introduced, and where even the number of houses is not known, the accounts of population must be mere estimates or rather conjectures; and, therefore, it is not extraordinary that different writers should have presented results so distant from each other as those we have examined. Two censuses have, indeed, been instituted; one in the middle of the sixteenth, and the other at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Their results are not, however, now known; and if they were, they would scarcely be tolerable guides at this day, when

the whole state of affairs has undergone such great alterations. Hassel, in 1816, calculated the whole number of Turkish subjects at 24,070,000; and, in 1819, Lichtenstern estimated them at 24,880,000, whilst Gräberg reckoned them to be in round numbers 23,000,000. Though these industrious writers thus approached nearly to each other in their totals, they differ most widely in the component parts. Thus, in Asia Minor, they disagree to the extent of five or six millions; and in Egypt and its dependencies to the extent of three or four.

The financial affairs of the Turkish empire are involved in still greater obscurity than the state of the population. From the system, which uniformly prevails, by which every governor of a province collects imposts, and expends them on the local objects under his management—that which is received into the general treasury bears no proportion to that which is extracted from the subject. Many of the provinces are compelled to deliver contributions in their productions, which productions are appropriated to some specific public department. Thus Egypt was required to deliver to the arsenal 1000 quintals of hemp, 200 jars of oil, 2000 pieces of linen, and 140 quintals of linen yarn; and to the Seraglio 36,000 measures of rice, 45,000 okas of sugar, 2000 measures of peas, besides stipulated quantities of ginger, cinnamon, pepper, and other smaller articles. The other provinces are required in a similar manner to contribute to the demands of the Imperial Government. The annual sum which flows into the treasury has been estimated, by Contemir and Thornton, at about L.3,000,000 Sterling, and by Eton at near L.4,000,000. Whatever may be the amount of the public income, it is distinct from the revenues which accrue to the Emperor personally, of which no account can be obtained; but it is imagined that they amount to much more than the expenditure of the imperial establishment, and that vast sums have been accumulated in the household treasury. These personal revenues arise from domains, from confiscations, from presents, and from the sale of governments and other offices. Count Marcellus, in a work published at the Hague in 1732 (Stato Militare de Imperio Ottomanno), asserts, that, at the death of Ibrahim in 1639, his successor, Conrad IV., found L.33,000,000 Sterling in money; and that, as, by a religious law, every Emperor is bound to increase this treasure, during his reign, it had been vastly augmented at the time he wrote.

This accumulation of private treasure is deemed an indispensable part of the state policy of Turkey, where, as in every despotic government, the individual filling the throne is exposed to sudden insurrections and interior revolutions. Meusel thinks that this treasure was much reduced by the war with Russia, which terminated in 1812, when the private hoards were compelled to come forth in aid of the national treasury to a very great, but unknown, extent; as the army was then paid with coins of very ancient dates. The expenses of the government are involved in as much obscurity as the income from which they are defrayed. The greater part of the military costs but little in time of peace; being fur-

nished with necessaries by the several provinces in which they are quartered, and which are collected from their feudatories by the governors of them.

The debt of the state, which, in 1803, amounted to only L.3,500,000 Sterling, has been increased by the various unfortunate events that have occurred since that period to upwards of L.70,000,000; and, in spite of forced loans, to which the government has had recourse, and of large contributions from the religious establishments, the state-obligations pay an interest at the rate of 12 per cent.

Under a government, where all land is held on the condition of military service, the number of soldiers must be great in proportion to the population; but in Turkey the numbers have been kept down by the want of means to provide the necessary arms and equipments. According to the most recent accounts, the regular army amounts to 125,000 infantry, artillery, artificers, sappers, miners, and armourers, included; and 12,500 cavalry; but to the latter may be added 100,000 feudal horsemen, who may be made available for internal defence. The Janisaries make 80,000 of the infantry; and these are rather garrison militia, for the most part, than regular troops. The best corps consist of those called the new regulars, amounting to 24,000 men, who, as well as the artillery, are armed and disciplined after European models. The navy of Turkey has of late declined. It now consists of 15 ships of the line, the same number of frigates, and about 30 smaller vessels. Very few of these ships are fit for service; and the naval arsenal is so destitute of stores that fewer still can be equipped. At all times the best seamen in their fleet consisted of Greeks; and, since the insurrection of that nation, greater difficulties than before have been found in working and fighting their ships. This accounts for the different disasters which the Turkish navy has experienced during the course of the existing contests with their Greek subjects.

As the greater part of the inhabitants of the Turkish dominions are collected in and around the towns for security, the intervals of land between these towns are almost wholly uncultivated. Where any cultivation is practised, the soil is highly grateful, and produces abundant returns for the labour bestowed on it in corn, wine, oil, fruits, flax, hemp, cotton, wool, madder, and other dyeing materials. The woods afford excellent timber in abundance. Horses, cows, sheep, goats, and game, are plentifully reared. The fisheries, both in the rivers and seas, are much neglected, except by the Greeks, who have occasion for them from the numerous fasts prescribed by their religious tenets. Honey and wax are liberally supplied; and silk is collected in all the provinces south of the Danube. The mineral products are now almost wholly confined to iron, though mines of gold and silver were formerly worked in the mountains of Bosnia, and those of Moldavia and Wallachia are rich in minerals.

The manufactures in Turkey are neither numerous nor abundant. The best of them is leather of various colours and qualities. Dyes of several kinds, but especially that made from madder, and univer-

sally known through Europe by the name of Turkey-red, are supplied. Cottons are made in several places, as are coarse woollen cloths and carpets. Silks and silk gauzes, of a very delicate texture, are made at Constantinople, Salonica, and at Scio. Iron, and especially steel wares, are furnished from several parts of the empire. Besides these, the smaller articles, snuff, soap, sail-cloth, glass ware, porcelain, are produced, but not in quantities equal to the demand.

The commerce of Turkey is almost exclusively in Commerce. the hands of the Greek and Armenian subjects, or of Europeans established in the commercial cities, who are collectively distinguished by the name of Franks. The chief exports consist of cotton wool, silk, tobacco, oil, currants, rosin, wine, horses, cows, skins and hides, leather, linseed, corn, cheese, Turkish yarn, and carpets. The chief imports are—cloths of wool, silk, and cotton, colonial wares, glass, watches, hardware, paper, paints, cabinet ware, Nuremberg wares, precious stones, jewellery, and male and female slaves from Africa, from Georgia, and the Caucasian territory. The greatest traffic is with Austria, partly by land. The next in amount is with England, and then follows that with France, Italy, and Russia. The internal trade of Turkey is extensive, chiefly in the hands of Armenians, who exchange the productions of Europe for those of Asia, including India and China. Nearly the whole mercantile shipping belongs to the Greek subjects of the empire, whose resistance to its authority has an injurious effect on its general commerce. The chief trading cities in European Turkey are Constantinople, Salonica, Gallipoli, and Galatz.

The Turkish divisions of the empire are purely military, founded on feudal principles, and even retaining the military names. The whole dominion is divided into twenty-five districts, which are subdivided into sandshaks (Standards); each sandshak contains a number of tracts, called tiamars or siamets (Sabres). Besides these, there are other divisions, used purely for the civil and financial purposes of the government.

The European part of Turkey comprehends the European four provinces of Roumelia, Bosnia, the Islands, and Turkey. the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.

Roumelia is subdivided into sandshaks or standards, and contains about 6,000,000 inhabitants. The most populous cities, and their estimated inhabitants, as calculated by Andreossy in the year 1815, according to the consumption of bread, were the following:

Constantinople, 597,000; Adrianople, 100,000; Salonica, 60,000; Sofia, 46,000; Ruschak, 30,000; Philopopoli, 30,000; Ionina, 30,000; Larissa, 25,000; Sistove, 21,000; Varna, 16,000; Misetra, 16,000; Scutori, 16,000; Tripoliza, 12,000; Sillistra, 10,000; and Baba, Nicopoli, Stovi, or Uskub, and Pristina, from 9000 to 10,000 each.

Bosnia contains about 850,000 inhabitants. The cities are Bosna-Serai, with 65,000; Banjaluka, with 15,000; Zwornick, with 14,000; and Trebon, with 10,000 souls.

The Ejalet Dschesair, or Province of the Islands, according to Lichtenstern, contained in 1819 about

525,000 inhabitants, chiefly Greeks, and the following cities: Galipoli, with 17,000; Castorea, with 18,000; Betaglea, with 15,000; Hydra, with 40,000; Candia, with 15,000; Negroponte, with 16,000; Canea, with 12,000; and Athens and Levadia, with 10,000 inhabitants each.

Wallachia and Moldavia are rather under the nominal than the real government of Turkey, though the Waiwode is nominated by the Porte. He is always appointed from some of the noble Greek families, generally for a short period, and uniformly by means of bribery. Wallachia contains about 1,000,000 inhabitants, chiefly of the Greek church, and they are governed by ancient feudal laws, which are corruptly administered by magistrates who owe their authority to barefaced corruption. Bucharest, the capital, contains from 50,000 to 60,000 inhabitants.

Moldavia has been contracted by cessions to Russia, and now contains about 500,000 inhabitants, who are of the same religion, and under a government similar to that of Wallachia. Jassy, the capital, contains 27,500 inhabitants. Galatz, a trading city on the Danube, has about 8000 regular inhabitants, and a vast number of strangers, who resort to it for commercial purposes.

Turkish Asia comprehends the following countries: 1st, The peninsula of Asia Minor, with the island of Cyprus, and some smaller islands in the Egean and the Mediterranean seas, and in the sea of Marmora. 2d, That part of Georgia which has remained to Turkey since the last peace with Russia. 3d, A portion of Armenia. 4th, The whole country of Mesopotamia, that of the Curd, and a part of Irak. 5th, The whole of Soristan or Syria, with which the Turks include the district of Yemen in Arabia, over which they have no actual power, and the cities of Mecca, Medina, and Jeddo, which have been lately again taken by them from the Wahabees, but which properly form a part of Arabia. These natural or ancient divisions are now scarcely regarded by the Turks. The whole dominion is, for purposes of administration, divided into twenty-one governments, viz.

1st, Anatolia, including that portion of Asia Minor which comprehends the provinces of Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Galatia, Phrygia, Mysia, Lydia, Lycia, Caria, and Pisidia. The chief cities are, Kutakia, or Cotyaum, with, according to Malte-Brun, 50,000 inhabitants; Brussa, with, according to Kinneir, 50,000; Bergamo, the ancient Pergamos, Anatolia, with, according to Beaufort, 8000; Kara-hissa, with 60,000; Angora, with 20,000; Kastimuni, with 13,000; Sinope, with 10,000; Smyrna, with 100,000; Scalanuvo, with, according to Galt, 20,000; Scio, in the island of that name, with 25,000, according to Galt, 20,000; to Wittman, 25,000; and to Olivier, 30,000; almost wholly Greeks, and lately destroyed.

2d, Kibris, or the island of Cyprus, with about 120,000 inhabitants, of whom 16,000 are in the city of Nicosia.

3d, Itschill, a part of Asia Minor, comprehend-

ing the ancient Cilicia, Isauria, and Pamphylia. Its chief cities are Adana, with 30,000 inhabitants; and Tarsus, with 30,000.

4th, Carmania, comprehending a portion of Asia Minor, which was formerly Cappadocia, and parts of Galatia, and Phrygia Major. Its chief cities are, Konia, or Iconium, with 30,000 inhabitants; Laranda, or Caraman, with, according to Kinneir, 15,000; and Acschier, or Antioch, with 60,000.

5th, Merash, extending over part of Cappadocia, of Armenia Minor, and of Cilicia Campestris. The principal cities are, Merash, with 9000 or 10,000 souls; Aintab, with 20,000; and Melitene, with 8000.

6th, Sewas, including the greater portion of the ancient Pontus, whose principal cities are, Oskal, with 16,000 inhabitants; and Amasia, with 35,000.

7th, Trebisond, comprehending, to the eastern of the ancient Pontus, a portion of Armenia on the border of the Black Sea. The capital of the same name contains, according to Kinneir, 15,000 inhabitants; and Rise, or Irisch, not lately visited, but in the middle of the last century, a flourishing, manufacturing, and commercial city, has 30,000 inhabitants.

8th, Tschalder, or Chaldea, a part of Armenia, with which what remains to the Turks of Georgia is comprehended. The only city is Akhirssa, or Akalzike, on the great road to the passes through the mountains, which lead to the ports on the Black Sea, supposed to contain from 12,000 to 15,000 souls of all descriptions and nations.

9th, Kars, a part of Armenia. The chief city in lat. 40° 56', and long. 43° 25', of the same name, as well as the other towns, have not been recently visited, and their population is not ascertained.

10th, Erzerum, also a part of Armenia, supposed, by Morier, to contain from 500,000 to 600,000 inhabitants, and represented by him to be both fertile and beautiful. The capital of the same name is variously described by Tournefort, Morier, Gardanne, Kinneir, and Von Hammer; the lowest estimation making the inhabitants amount to 80,000; the highest (Morier) to 250,000. Karahissar contains 10,000, and Hamischkane 7000 souls.

11th, Wan, a part of Armenia and of Kurdistan. The capital, from which the province derives its name, has not been recently visited; Betlis is stated by Kinneir to contain 12,000 inhabitants.

12th, Schersur, a part of Kurdistan. This province is so called from its capital, in lat. 35° 46', and long. 45° 21', which, with all the other places, are of small consideration.

13th, Bagdad, a part of Mesopotamia, and the ancient Babylon, with a portion of Kurdistan. This extensive province is very thinly peopled, and recent travellers represent it as fast going to decay. Bagdad, the city which gives its name to the province, is stated by De Sacy to contain 95,000 inhabitants, or more than one-fifth of the whole population; the other towns are small.

14th, Basra, or Bussora, a part of Chaldea, and of Arabia. The capital of the same name contains from 45,000 to 80,000 inhabitants, according to the differing accounts of Neibuhr, De Sacy, and Von Hammer. Korna, at the junction of the Tigris with

Turkish Empire. the Frat, is a commercial city of some importance; but its population is not ascertained.

15th, Mossul, a part of Mesopotamia, and of Assyria. The capital which gives its name to the province is on a fine plain, watered by the Tigris, and contains, according to Kinneir, 35,000; according to Olivier, 65,000 inhabitants.

16th, Diarbekr, that part of Mesopotamia which was called Bekr formerly. The capital from which the province derives its name contains, according to Kinneir, 38,000 inhabitants; but according to Gardanne, 80,000. Siwerh, a trading city on the river Frat, has a population of 10,000. The other towns are very small.

17th, Raeca, the western part of Mesopotamia, and a part of Syria. The inhabitants live more in tents than in towns. The capital of the same name, though known in Europe more commonly by the names of Nicephorium or Kallinicum, is represented, by recent travellers, to contain from 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. Biredschik, a trading town on the Frat, has about 6000, and no other place more than 2000 inhabitants.

18th, Haleb, the northern part of ancient Syria. It is represented as a fertile, manufacturing, and commercial province, with 500,000 industrious inhabitants. Haleb, the capital, the ancient Beroe, now called Aleppo, has a population of, according to Volney, 100,000; to Setzen, 150,000; to Rousseau, 200,000; to Arvieux, 280,000; and to Dr Russel, 235,000. It has a great trade carried on by the numerous Franks established there. Killis contains 12,000; Antokia 15,000 inhabitants. The population of Scanderoon and Latakia are not ascertained.

19th, Tarabul, the middle part of Syria, westward of Lebanon. The name of this province is derived from that of its capital, known to Europeans as Tripoli; which, according to Browne, contains about 16,000 souls. No other town is noticed by travellers.

20th, Akka, the ancient Phoenicia, and a part of Palestine. The capital of the province, Acre, or St John's d'Acre, the ancient Ptolemais, contains about 16,000 souls. The population of the other cities, except Bairut, or Beritus, which has 7000 inhabitants, is not ascertained.

21st, Damas, this includes the greater part of ancient Syria, extends over 26,850 square miles, and has a population of 1,250,000 souls. The province takes the name of its capital, Damas, or Damascus, which has about 200,000 inhabitants. Hamah has, according to Ali Bey, 100,000; Emessa, 30,000; Jerusalem, according to the same traveller, 30,000 to 40,000; Razza, the ancient Gaza, 5000; Ramla, or Arimatheia, 10,000; and Jaffa, or Joppa, 5000 inhabitants.

Turkish Africa. The Turkish government claims a kind of authority over some very large portions of Africa; but the local authorities can scarcely be considered as subjects of the Porte. The most important of these, Egypt, has been largely treated of in Part I. Vol. IV. of this Supplement. The states of Barbary, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, pay, when it suits them, some

tribute as acknowledgment of dependance. Nubia has been recently subjected to the Pasha of Egypt; but it is hard to define how far that country can be considered as a branch of the Turkish empire, when the conqueror of it scarcely acknowledges his dependance. The limits allotted to this article will not allow us to draw up, even in a compressed form, such particulars as have reached us respecting the northern parts of Africa; and, indeed, they more properly belong to other articles.

See Present State of Turkey, &c. by William Thornton, London, 1815; Moeurs, Usages, Costumes, &c. de la Turquie, Paris, 1812, par A. L. Castillon; Des Osmanischen Reichs Staatsverfassung und Staatsverwaltung, von Jos von Hammer, Vienna, 1815; Clarke's, Hobhouse's, Holland's, Morier's, Kinneir's, and Wittman's Travels; Karamania, by Captain Beaufort, R. N.; Heude's Voyage to the Persian Gulf, 1819; Hassel's Erdbeschreibung, Wiemar, 1821. (w. w.)