THE

MONTHLY

REVIEW.

JULY, 1836.

ART. I.-Nine Years' Residence in Constantinople, or Observations on the Topography of that Capital, the Health and Manners of its Inhabitants; Islamism and its Influence; The Plague, its Causes, Varieties, Progress, and Treatment; The Non-contagion of that Malady; Quarantines and Lazarettos. By A. BRAYER, M.D. 2 vols. Paris. 1836.

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We had entertained an opinion that the number of books which have of late years issued from the press, purporting to be travels in Turkey, and bearing on their title-pages the names of men of every variety of profession and pursuit, from the plodding Clarke to the imaginative Slingsby-to say nothing of the daily letter of the correspondent of the Morning Herald-had made the city of the Bosphorus, with its palaces and gardens, its minarets, its mosques, and its palm groves, together with the laws, manners, customs and external appearance of the varied and interesting population that crowd its narrow and dirty streets, as familiar and well known things to the British reader as the fashions and physiognomies of our neighbours on the Seine. We had formed in our own minds certain general features of the moral, political, and social condition of the Turks, with which we felt satisfied, as resting on the best authority for their similitude to the living originals. But if we are to attach any credit to the learned author whose lengthy title-page we have affixed to the head of this article, we find that our previously conceived opinions were far from being correct, and that we are still neophytes in most matters connected with Turkish manners and policy. M. Brayer, in fact, boldly takes the field upon entirely new ground; and with no other weapons than strong assertion, and a modicum of logic, boldly takes issue upon most important points, with all the writers who have preceded him.

Most travellers and writers," he exclaims in his Introduction, "who have visited Turkey or described that country, have described the Turks -as proud and ignorant men, despising every thing which does not belong VOL. II. (1836) No. III.

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to their own country, carrying their intolerance and fanaticism to cruelty; as filthy, and profligate, and faithless in their dealings with strangers. In fact, by their statements, this people is the type of barbarism. The European Journals entertain the public with nothing but debasings of the currency, awful conflagrations, and persecutions endured by divers sects of Christians. We hear of nothing but revolts of Pachas, insurrections of Janissaries; our eyes are directed to severed heads affixed to the walls of the Seraglio; Viziers strangled, or sent into banishment. The imagination, led astray by these exaggerated accounts, is lost amid the intrigues of the harem and the revolutions of the palace, terminating in the spectacle of Sultans deposed and imprisoned, or put to death.

"But I, on the other hand, paint the Turk, when the honour of his government or the existence of his religion is not compromised when his fanaticism is not aroused in defence of either of these principles-I paint him, as generally good, sincere, charitable, hospitable, free from hypocrisy and parade, and although strongly attached to his own faith, tolerant towards all forms of worship; honest not only in relation to his fellow countrymen, but towards strangers, and cleanly in his person and habits, to a degree unknown in any other part of Europe."

We shall not stop to notice the large concessions which the learned Doctor feels it necessary to demand, viz. when the fanaticism of the Turk has not been aroused in defence of the honour of his government or the existence of his religion, before entering on the proofs of his assertions of the respectability of the Turkish character. Hereafter we shall have an opportunity of judging how far those assertions are borne out and established by the facts he adduces to support them. Not content with demolishing, at one fell swoop, the statements of his misleading predecessors, a little further on we find the learned Doctor grappling with an antagonist, with whom it may seem his peculiar province to contend, i. e. the plague. Here again all has been error and misrepresentation.

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"The plague," proceeds M. Brayer, "that calamity which seems to show a decided partiality for Eastern climates, has been hitherto regarded by the majority of writers who have examined its effects, as a most decidedly contagious disorder, propagated by the want of cleanliness of individuals, and the negligence of the government. The dogma of fatality' say they, ' is not unconnected with the causes which feed and prolong its ravages.' They furthermore pretend that this scourge carries off a large portion of the population yearly, and that the governments of Northern and Southern Europe cannot be too rigorous in the enforcement of sanitary laws to prevent its extension. I, on the other hand, agreeing with other writers-few indeed in number, but strong in their respectability-maintain that the plague, such as I have observed it at Constantinople, is not contagious. I shall convince my readers, that it is not to the severity of sanitary laws, to the rigour of quarantines, to the enormous fines or the pain of death directed against the infringers of those regulations, that the Christian governments are indebted for their exemption from the plague, but to a more elevated latitude, a more improved agriculture, and a further advancement in the treatment of the public health and the knowledge of the medical sciences."

These broad differences of opinion M. Brayer attributes to the short sojourn and consequently superficial views of preceding travellers; to their accounts being exclusively taken from the Frank society they frequented, and repeated from one to the other without due examination of their strictness and accuracy. The Levant, he says, differs so widely in every particular from Europe, that a cultivated education alone will not there, as in the latter country, enablé a man to become a judicious observer of the religion, manners, habits, and prejudices of the Turks and Rayahs; he must be in a peculiar social position, and well acquainted with most of the languages spoken at Constantinople. These advantages, M. Brayer acknowledges to belong to some of the attachés of the various legations, but they have not betrayed any disposition to avail themselves of them. The consequence may be easily foreseen. M. Brayer, who to the above mentioned requisites joins the passe partout of the medical character, finds himself reduced to the necessity of proclaiming to the European world, how erroneous have been its conclusions upon these important matters, and how widely the original differs from the picture that has been laid before it. In these statements it would appear that M. Brayer is not uncorroborated by the testimony of other travellers. In the travels of Captain Colville Frankland, published in 1830, we find the following analagous passage: -"Indeed I am sure, that if we knew the language of this interesting people, and would try to become acquainted with them, we should find them more tractable and civilized than we are apt to imagine. But unfortunately there is a mutual repulsion existing between Frank and Turk; and I verily believe we know as little of each other, as if we had only been mutually viewed in a panorama, or camera obscura."-Franklands Travels, p. 173.

If this may be taken as a true statement of the case, we have not the slightest hesitation in awarding our meed of approbation to the zeal displayed by M. Brayer, in defence of the character and manners of the Turks, and to the industry and exactness that has enabled him to collect and place before us so large a quantity of interesting matter bearing directly on the subject.

We shall not stop to examine the minute and elaborate_topographical descriptions of Constantinople and its environs. M. Brayer launches forth, of course, with befitting enthusiasm, in praises of the inconceivable beauty of the earth, the sky, the waters, and the harmonious blending of their thousand gorgeous and glorious dyes.

"What an enchanting spectacle," he exclaims, speaking of an eastern sunrise, what words are adequate to describe the slow succession of phenomena SO various! I certainly had read in the Greek and Latin authors of Aurora, a rosy-fingered goddess, ushering in the sun; but I had always looked upon those descriptions as the productions of heated imaginations. Who in fact can, in our northern climates, and beneath our cloudy horizons, recognise the truth of those delicious descriptions?

What a melancholy goddess, what a pale Aurora, is ours! But how agreeably was I now undeceived! how much more fondly did I feel myself clinging to existence! How I regretted the years I had spent in ignorance of such sweet sensations! How I pitied those citizens, softly extended on their beds of down in their carefully-closed alcoves, who know the dawn by its name only, or by the decorations of the Opera, heedless of beauties so entrancing, and so well calculated to elevate the soul to the Author of many wonders."

But, leaving this well-trodden path of scenery and topography, we shall come at once to the interesting picture of the Mussulman, considered in his domestic and public character.

"The Turks and Rayahs form the two great divisions of the population of Constantinople. The manners and character of these two castes are as widely distinct as their dwellings and pursuits. On the one hand is the Mussulman, who, but little qualified for commercial speculations on a great scale; a foe to dirt, to noise, the bustle of the crowd, and the chicaneries of trade, confines his industry to matters of inferior detail, such as the sale of spices and passer; he is baker, pastrycook, confectioner; he manufactures, Turkish trowsers, turbans, arms, and saddles; he excels in embroidery, engraving, and all those species of industry, which are not opposed to canonical cleanliness. If he has received an education, he becomes a writer by preference; he copies the Koran, and manuscripts; he devotes himself to the study of religion or the law, to fit himself for government offices, and the dignities of the state. If he has not been so fortunate, he attaches himself to the service of those who, with a better education and better luck than himself, have succeeded in obtaining them. On the other hand is the Rayah, whose sole means of existence is in trade, and who prosecutes all those branches of industry for which the Mussulman is disqualified by incapacity or religion. The difference of pursuits has necessarily led to a difference of dwelling-the Rayahs settling along the ports and quays and the dirty quarters which line them-while the Mussulman has retired into the interior of the city."

The spacious and flowing robes of the Mussulman, M. Brayer prefers, as being more dignified and more suited to the climate than the scanty and close-buttoned habiliments of the Franks. A trowsers which displays the shape of the thighs and posterior, the delicate Mussulman looks upon as the extreme of indecency. Scarcely can he extend his toleration to a frock coat or surtout; it must be admitted, however, that the European vestments have an advantage in the matter of convenience, in certain particulars, which are wholly overlooked in the construction of the eastern costume; and M. Brayer has not failed to amuse his readers with the ludicrous embarrassment in certain situations, arising from the difficulties and complexities of his dress, and his ideas of cleanliness and decorum. The turban, which lends nobleness and majesty to the person, he looks upon as being too heavy; and to this head-gear, and to the prostrations at their prayers, he attributes the congestions of the brain so frequent among the Mussulmans, and the fearful fits of

apoplexy to which many of them fall victims. The Turk's idea of cleanliness suggests the shaving of all hair, except the beard. This he is wont to consider as indicative of energy and high intellectual faculties; hence the adage he frequently uses-" you may count the hairs of his beard"-Anglice, he is a fool. His repugnance to make use of the spoils of animals, prevents his adopting various observances of European propriety. For instance, he considers it an abomination to use a tooth-brush, formed of the bristles of the pig, which he regards with the same aversion as the Jew. Nor will he cover his hands with gloves made of the skins of animals. Nay, even his pen must be vegetable: it is fashioned from a reed, and his brushes are formed of various roots. His food is such as is suited to his climate and his religion. His favourite meats are mutton, lamb, and veal; rice, boiled with mutton, is his great luxury, and bears the appellation of pilau. Few other viands find favour in his sight. Faithful to the precept, to eat to live, and not to live to eat, the hearty repast of the Mussulman seems rather the fulfilment of a duty than a sensual gratification. It is his peculiar regimen ; and the long fasts enjoined by the Koran, during the Ramazan, M. Brayer declares to be injurious to his digestive organs, and predisposing to scorbutic disorders. His external senses and physical formation, M. Brayer pronounces excellent; and he laments the impossibility of considering him phrenologically, as no inducement would be sufficient to engage a true believer to submit his cranium for the inspection of the philosopher.

The morale of the genuine Mussulman is examined by our author with distinctness and detail. A propensity to quarrelsomeness and destructiveness he denies in toto. A duel or a suicide are things. unheard of at Constantinople. A street brawl may occur, but it is soon suppressed by the police. Cunning and dissimulation are carried to a great extent among the upper classes, in a country where favour and intrigue are surer roads than merit to great offices, and where power is the source of riches and pleasure. "Kiss the hand you cannot smite," is the expressive adage of the wary Mussulman. But those circles beyond the reach of political intrigue are too resigned to fatality to be much under the influence of this principle.

"Humility," says the Koran, " is the key of the gate of paradise; it is the ornament of station and prosperity." "Humility ennobles man." So saith the text; and in conformity with the sacred ordinance, the bearing of the Mussulman, though grave and dignified, is free from overweening pride. His vanity is confined to his religion; his self-love finds occupation in the rigorous fulfilment of its precepts. With a deep conviction of its truth, and a strong desire for its propagation, he looks upon all other religions as compounded of puerilities, idolatry, and superstition. The pride of ancestry is utterly unknown.

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