Thornton and Volney

Observe, they were in the eighth century of their political existence, when Thornton and Volney lived among them, and these authors then report of them as follows: Their religion forbids them every sort of painting, sculpture, or engraving; thus the fine arts cannot exist among them. “ Their buildings”, says Thornton, “ are heavy in their proportions, bad in detail, both in taste and execution, fantastic in decoration, and destitute of genius. Their cities are not decorated with public monuments, whose object is to enliven or to embellish”. They have no music but vocal; and

know of no accompaniment except a bass of one note like that of the bagpipe. Their singing is in a great measure recitative, with little variation of note. They have scarcely any notion of medicine or surgery; and they do not allow of anatomy. As to science, the telescope, the microscrope, the electric battery, are unknown, except as play things. The compass is not universally employed in their navy, nor are its common purposes thoroughly understood. Navigation, astronomy, geography, chemistry, are either not known, or practised only on antiquated and exploded principles. As to their civil and criminal codes of law, these are unalterably fixed in the Koran.

Their habits require very little furniture ; “ the whole inventory of a wealthy family”, says Volney, “ consists in a carpet, mats, cushions, mattresses, some small cotton clothes, copper and wooden platters for the table, a mortar, a portable mill, a little porcelain, and some plates of copper tinned. All our apparatus of tapestry, wooden bead- steads, chairs, stools, glasses, desks, bureaus, closets, buffets with their plate and table services, all our cabinet and upholstery work are unknown”.

Powers of Christendom

They have no clocks, though they have watches. In short, they are hardly more than dismounted Tartars still; and, if pressed by the powers of Christendom, would be able, at very short warning, to pack up and turn their faces northward to their paternal deserts. You find in their cities barbers and mercers; saddlers and gunsmiths; bakers and confectioners; sometimes butchers ; whitesmiths and ironmongers; these are pretty nearly all their trades. Their inheritance is their all; their own acquisition is nought. Their stuffs are from the classical Greeks; their dyes are the old Tyrian; their cement is of the age of the Romans; and their locks may be traced back to Solomon. They do not commonly engage in agriculture or in commerce; of the cultivators of the soil I have said quite enough in a foregoing Lecture, and their commerce seems to be generally in the hands of Franks, Greeks, or Armenians, as formerly in the hands of the Jews.

Malek Shah attracted

It was their one instinctive notion of the religion of the West; and the Turks in their own history have often had cause to lament over its truth. Togrul Beg first looked towards the West in the year 1048; twenty years later, between the years 1068 and 1074,f his successor Malek Shah attracted the attention of the great St. Gregory the Seventh. Time went on; they were thrown back by the impetuosity of the Crusaders; they returned to the attack. Fresh and fresh multitudes poured down from Turkistan; the furious deluge of the Tartars under Zingis spread itself and disappeared ; the Turks sunk in it, but emerged; the race seemed indestructible; then Othman began a new career of victory, as if there had never been an old one, and founded an empire, more stable, more coherent than any Turkish rule before it.

Pontiffs of learning

Then followed Sultan after Sultan, each greater than his predecessor, while the line of Popes had indeed many bright names to show, Pontiffs of learning, and of piety, and of genius, and of zeal and energy; but still where was the destined champion of Christendom, the holy, the inflexible, the lion-hearted, the successor of St. Gregory, who in a luxurious and a self-willed age, among his other high duties and achievements, had the mission, by his prayers and by his efforts, of stopping the enemy in his full career, and of rescuing Catholicism from the pollution of the blasphemer ? The five hundred years were not yet completed, t Gibbon says twenty years; Sharon Turner, 1074.

But the five hundred years at length were run out; the long-expected champion was at hand. Pie appeared at the very time when the Ottoman crescent had passed its zenith and was beginning to descend the sky. The Turkish successes began in the middle of the eleventh century; they ended in the middle of the sixteenth; in the middle of the sixteenth century, just five hundred years after St. Gregory and Malek Shah, Selim the Sot came to the throne of Othman, and St. Pius the Fifth to the throne of the Apostle; Pius became Pope in 1568, and Selim became Sultan in that very same year.

Fulness of apostolic charity

Especially was there one, the divinely appointed shepherd of the poor of Christ, the anxious steward of. His Church, who from his high and ancient watch tower, in the fulness of apostolic charity, surveyed narrowly what was going on at thousands of miles from him, and who with prophetic eye looked into the future age; and scarcely had that enemy showed himself, who was in the event so heavily to smite the Christian world, but he gave warning of the danger, and prepared himself with measures to avert it. Scarcely had the Turk touched the shores of the Mediterranean and the Archipelago, when the Pope detected and denounced him before all Europe.

The heroic Pontiff, St. Gregory the Seventh, was then upon the throne of the Apostle; and though he was engaged in one of the severest conflicts which Pope has ever sustained, not only against the secular power, but against bad bishops and priests, yet at a time when his very life was not his own, and present responsibilities so urged him, that one would fancy he had time for no other thought, Gregory was able to turn his mind to the consideration of a contingent danger in the almost fabulous East. In a letter written during the reign of Malek Shah, he suggested the idea of a crusade against the misbeliever, which later popes carried out. He assures the Emperor of Germany, whom he was addressing, that he had 50,000 troops ready for the holy war, whom he would fain have led in person. In truth the most melancholy accounts were brought to Europe of the state of things in the Holy Land.

A rude Turcoman ruled in Jerusalem; his people insulted there the clergy of every profession ; they dragged the patriarch by the hair along the pavement, and cast him into a dungeon, in hopes of a ransom; and disturbed from time to time the Latin Mass and office in the Church of the Resurrection. As to the pilgrims, Asia Minor, the country through which they had to travel in an age when the sea was not yet safe to the voyager, was a scene of foreign incursion and internal dis-traction. They arrived at Jerusalem exhausted by their sufferings, and sometimes terminated them by death, before they were permitted to kiss the Holy Sepulchre.

Such calamities were of frequent occurrence, and one was very like another. I think it worth while, however, to set before you the circumstances of one of them, that you may be able to form some ideas of the state both of Asia Minor and of a Christian pilgrimage, under the dominion of the Turks. You may recollect, then, that Alp Arslan, the second Seljukian Sultan, invaded Asia Minor, and made prisoner the Greek Emperor.

Warlike operations immediately

This Sultan came to the throne in 1062, and appears to have begun his warlike operations immediately. The next year, or the year following, a body of pilgrims, to the number of 7,000, were pursuing their peaceful way to Jerusalem, by a route which at that time lay entirely through countries professing Christianity broad beans. The pious company was headed by the Archbishop of Mentz, the Bishops of Utrecht, Bamberg, and Ratisbon, and, among others, by a party of Norman soldiers and clerks, belonging to the household of William Duke of Normandy, who made himself, very soon afterwards, our William the Conqueror.

Among these clerks was the celebrated Benedictine Monk Ingulphus, William’s secretary, afterwards Abbot of Croyland in Lincolnshire, being at that time a little more than thirty years of age. They passed through Germany and Hungary to Constantinople, and thence by the southern coast of Asia Minor or Anatolia, to Syria and Palestine. When they got on the confines of Asia Minor towards Cilicia, they fell in with the savage Turcomans, who were attracted by the treasure, which these noble persons and wealthy churchmen had brought with them for pious purposes and imprudently displayed. Ingulphus’s words are few, but so graphic that I require an apology for using them. He says then, they were “ gutted of the immense sums of money they carried with them, together with the loss of many lives”.

Took place on their return to Venice

They were to be flayed alive; their shins filled with hay, and so sent back to the Pope; or they were to be put in the first rank in the next battle with the Franks, and to die by the weapons of their own countrymen. Eventually one of the Khan’s wives begged them off. They were kept in a sort of captivity for three years, and at length thought themselves happy to be sent away with their lives. So much for the Friars; how different was the lot of the merchants, may be understood by the scene which took place on their return to Venice. It is said that, on their appearance in their own city, after the absence of a quarter of a century, their change of appearance was such that even their nearest friends did not know them.

Appearance at Venice

Having with difficulty effected an entrance into their own house, they set about giving a splendid entertainment to the principal persons of the city. The banquet over, following the Oriental custom, they successively put on and then put off again, and distributed to their attendants, a series of magnificent dresses; and at length they entered the room in the same weather-stained and shabby dresses, in which, as travellers, they had made their first appearance at Venice. The assembled company eyed them with wonder; which you may be sure was not diminished, when they began to unrip the linings and the patches of those old clothes, and as the seams were opened, poured out before them a prodigious quantity of jewels. This had been their expedient for conveying their gains to Europe, and the effect of the discovery upon the world may be anticipated. Persons of all ranks and ages crowded to them, as the report spread, and they were the wonder of their day.

Necessarily confine the wandering

The valleys which lie between them necessarily confine the wandering savage to an eastward or westward course, and the slope of the land westward invites him to that direction rather than to the east. And further, at a certain point in these westward passages, as he approaches the meridian of the Sea of Aral, he finds the mountain-ranges cease, and he has the permission, if he will, to stretch away to the north or to the south. Moreover, his course is naturally to the west, from the nature of the case, if he moves at all, for the East is his native home.

There, in the most northerly of these ranges is a lofty mountain, which some geographers have identified with the classical Imaus; it is called by the Saracens Caf, by the Turks Altai; sometimes too it has the name of the Girdle of the Earth, from the huge appearance of the chain to which it belongs, sometimes of the Golden Mountain, from the gold, as well as other metals, with which its sides abound. It is said to be at an equal distance of 2,000 miles from the Caspian, the Frozen Sea, the North Pacific Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal ; and, being in situation the furthest withdrawn from West and South, it is in fact the high metropolis of the vast Tartar country, which it overlooks, and has sent forth, in the course of ages, innumerable populations into the illimitable and mysterious regions around it, regions protected by their inland character both from the observation and the civilizing influence of foreign nations.

To eat bread in the sweat of his brow is the original punishment of mankind; the indolence of the savage shrinks from the obligation, and looks out for methods of escaping it. Com, wine, and oil have no charms for him at such a price; he Gibbon.

turns to the brute animals which are his aboriginal companions, the horse, the cow, and the sheep; he prefers fd’be a grazier than to till the ground. He feeds his horses, flocks, and herds on its spontaneous vegetation, and then in turn he feeds himself on their flesh. He remains on one spot while the natural crop yields them sustenance; when it is exhausted, he migrates to another. He adopts, what is called, the life of a nomad.

The martial drum had never reached

TALE XVII

On a certain year, I was travelling from Balk with some people of Damascus, and the road was infested with robbers. There was a young man of our party, are expert handler of the shield, a mighty archer, a brandisher of all weapons, so strong that ten men could not draw his bowstring, and the most powerful wrestler on the face of the earth had never brought his back to the ground; but he was rich, and had been nursed in the shade, was inexperienced in the world, and no traveler.

The thundering sound of the martial drum had never reached his ear, neither had his eyes seen the lightning of the horseman’s sword; he had never been made prisoner by the enemy, nor had the arrows fallen in showers around him. It happened that I and this young man were running together; every wall that came in his way he pulled down, and every large tree that he saw, by the force of his arm he tore up by the roots.

He was boasting, saying, “Where is the elephant, that you may behold the shoulders of the hero? Where is the lion that you may see the fingers and palm of the brave man? ” We were in this situation, when two Indians lifted up their heads from behind a rock with the intention to kill us; one had a stick in his hand, and the other a sling under his arm. I said to the young man, “Why do you stop? Show your strength and velour, for here is the enemy within a foot of Ins grave.” I saw tile bow and arrows drop from the hand of the young man, and a trembling seized all his joints. Not every one who can split a hair with an arrow that will pierce a coat of mail, is able to stand against the warrior in the day of battle.

We saw no other remedy for ourselves, but to leave our accoutrements, surrender our arms, and escape with our lives. On an affair of importance employ a man of experience, who will bring the devouring lion into his trammels. A young man, though he has strength of arm and is powerful as an elephant, will feel his joints quaking with fear in the day of battle. A man of experience is as well qualified to act in war as the learned man is to expound a case of law.

Suffered reproach and uneasiness

TALE III

I saw a religions man so captivated by the beauty of a youth, that his secret became public, insomuch that he suffered reproach and uneasiness. However lie did not relinquish his attachment; and said, “I will not quit the skirt of your garment, although yourself should smite me with a sharp sword; besides thee I have neither asylum nor defence: to you alone can I flee tor refuge.” Once I reproved him, and said, “What has happened, to your excellent understanding, that mean inclinations should have been able to overpower it? After reflecting a short time, he replied, “Wherever

the King of love cometh, the arm of. piety hath not power to resist him. How can that poor wretch be clean, who has fallen up to his neck in a quagmire? ”

TALE IV

A certain person having lost his heart, abandoned himself to despair. The object of his affection being a place of danger, a whirlpool; not a morsel with which you could hope to gratifty the palate; not a bird that would fall into the net. When your sweetheart will not look at your gold, that metal and earth appear alike in your sight.

His friends besought him to relinquish this vain imagination, many besides himself being seized with this hopeless idea, and held in captivity by it. He lamenting said, “Desire my friends not to admonish me, since my destiny depends on the will of another. Warriors kill their enemies by the strength of their hands and shoulders; but those who are beautiful, destroy their friends. It is not consistent with the laws of love, through fear of death, to relinquish our attachment to our mistress.

You who seek your own ease, eannot be true in the game of love. If you cannot obtain access to the object of your affection, friendship demands that you should die in the pursuit. I persist, be- cause no other course remains, even though my adversary covers me with wounds from a sword or an arrow. If I should be able, I will seize her sleeve, otherwise I will go and expire at her threshold.”

The government of the kingdom

TALE XXVIII

A certain King, when arrived at the end of his days, having no heir, directed in his will that, in the morning after his death, the first person who entered the gate of the city, they should place on his head the crown of royalty, and commit to his charge the government of the kingdom. It happened that the first person who entered the city gate was a beggar, who all his life had collected scraps of victuals and sewed patch upon patch.

The ministers of state and the nobles of the court carried into execution the King’s will bestowing on him the kingdom and the treasure. For some time the I hinvesli governed the kingdom, until part of the nobility swerved their necks from his obedience, and all the surrounding monarehs, engaging in hostile confederacies, attacked him with their armies. In short, the troops and peasantry were thrown into confusion, and he lost the possession of some territories.

The Durwesh was distressed at these events, when an old friend, who had been his companion in the days of poverty, returned from a journey, and finding him in such exalted state, said, “Praised be the God of excellence and glory, that your high fortune lias aided you and prosperity been your guide, so that a rose has issued from the briar, and the thorn has been extracted from your foot, and you have arrived at this dignity participants independently optimize. Of a truth, joy succeeds sorrow: the bud sometimes blossoms and sometimes withers: the tree is sometimes naked and sometimes clothed.”

He replied, “0 brother, condole with me, for this is not a time for congratulation. When you saw me last, I was only anxious how to obtain bread; but now I have all the cares of the world to encounter. If the times are adverse, I am in pain; and if they are prosperous, I am captivated with worldly enjoyments. There is no calamity greater than worldly affairs, because they distress the heart in prosperity as well as in adversity

If you want riches, seek only for contentment, which is inestimable wealth, if the rich man should throw money into your lap, consider not yourself obliged to him; for I have often heard it said by pious men, that the patience of the poor is preferable to the liberality of the rich. If Bahrain should roast an onager (wild ass) to be distributed amongst the people, it would not be equal to the leg of a locust to an ant.”

TALE XXIX

A certain person had a friend employed hi the office of Dewan, with whom he had not chanced to meet for some time. Somebody said to him, 11 It is a long time since you saw such an one.” He answered, “Neither do I wish to see him.” It happened that one of the Dewan’s people was present, who asked what fault his friend had been guilty of, that he was not inclined to see him. He replied, “There is no fault; but the time for see ng a De- wan is when he is dismissed from his office. In greatness and authority of office, they neglect their friends in the day of adversity and degradation, they impart to their friends the disquietude to their hearts.”

Fighteth the battle staketh

I heard that at that time a powerful enemy appeared against the King, and when the two armies met, the first person who impelled his horse into the action was this young Prince, calling out, “I am not him, whose back you shall see in the day of battle, but my head may be found in dust and blood; for whosoever fighteth the battle staketh his own life; and he who flieth, sporteth with the blood of his troops.” Having thus said, he attacked the troops of the enemy, and overthrew several men of renown. When he came to his father, he bowed down to the earth and said, “0 ye, to whom my form appeared contemptible without considering the force of my valour, in the day of battle the slender steed is useful, and not the fattened ox.”

It is reported, that the enemy having many troops, and this side but few, a body of the latter were giving way, upon which the Prince vociferated, “Exert yourselves like men, that ye may not wear the dress of women.” The troopers, animated by this speech, joined in the general attack, and are reported to have gained the victory over the adversary on that day. The King kissed his head and eyes, and folded him in his arms, and his affection towards him increased daily, till at length he appointed him his successor. The brothers became envious, and put poison into his food. His sister seeing this from a window, flapped to the shutters; and he understanding the signal, withdrew his hand from the dish, and exclaimed, “If the wise should be deprived of life, it would be impossible for the unskilful to supply their place.

No one would go under the shade of the owl, if the Homai was annihilated from the earth.” They informed the father of the circumstances, who sent for the brothers, and after rebuking them properly, he gave to each of them a suitable portion of his kingdom, that all cause of strife and bickering might subside. It has been observed, that ten Durweshes may sleep upon one blanket, but that one kingdom cannot contain two Kings. If a pious man eatetli half a loaf of bread, he bestoweth the other half on the poor. If a king possesseth the dominion of a whole climate, he longeth to have the same enjoyment of another.

Fighteth the battle staketh

I heard that at that time a powerful enemy appeared against the King, and when the two armies met, the first person who impelled his horse into the action was this young Prince, calling out, “I am not him, whose back you shall see in the day of battle, but my head may be found in dust and blood; for whosoever fighteth the battle staketh his own life; and he who flieth, sporteth with the blood of his troops.” Having thus said, he attacked the troops of the enemy, and overthrew several men of renown. When he came to his father, he bowed down to the earth and said, “0 ye, to whom my form appeared contemptible without considering the force of my valour, in the day of battle the slender steed is useful, and not the fattened ox.”

It is reported, that the enemy having many troops, and this side but few, a body of the latter were giving way, upon which the Prince vociferated, “Exert yourselves like men, that ye may not wear the dress of women.” The troopers, animated by this speech, joined in the general attack, and are reported to have gained the victory over the adversary on that day. The King kissed his head and eyes, and folded him in his arms, and his affection towards him increased daily, till at length he appointed him his successor. The brothers became envious, and put poison into his food. His sister seeing this from a window, flapped to the shutters; and he understanding the signal, withdrew his hand from the dish, and exclaimed, “If the wise should be deprived of life, it would be impossible for the unskilful to supply their place.

No one would go under the shade of the owl, if the Homai was annihilated from the earth.” They informed the father of the circumstances, who sent for the brothers, and after rebuking them properly, he gave to each of them a suitable portion of his kingdom, that all cause of strife and bickering might subside. It has been observed, that ten Durweshes may sleep upon one blanket, but that one kingdom cannot contain two Kings. If a pious man eatetli half a loaf of bread, he bestoweth the other half on the poor. If a king possesseth the dominion of a whole climate, he longeth to have the same enjoyment of another.