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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58003	The present state of the Ottoman Empire containing the maxims of the Turkish politie, the most material points of the Mahometan religion, their sects and heresies, their convents and religious votaries, their military discipline ... : illustrated with divers pieces of sculpture, representing the variety of habits amongst the Turks, in three books / by Paul Rycaut Esq. ...	Rycaut, Paul, Sir, 1628-1700.	1668 (1668)	Wing R2413; ESTC R18075	228,446	228

by some glimmerings and rayes of his glory and essence is sufficient to lead them into Paradise and rank them in the number of the faithful Another sort there are called Jabaiah which denies Gods Omniscience affirming That God governs the world by chance and accidents not comprehending from Eternity or at the Creation of the world a perfect certainty of the particular affairs that were to be transacted in it and that God improves in knowledge by time as men do by constant practice and experience We shall not insist here to multiply many of these Sects who have almost as many diversitiesamongst the Turks as there are Schools and Masters every Hogia that is but a form above a meer Pedagogue and reads a few Books of the Arabian Fables esteems himself of mean account if by some singular opinion which he instills into his Disciples he distinguishes not his Gymnasion from the common and inferiour Schools But these men in framing their particular fancies and venting their follies have a special care that none of their principies oppugne those five points of practice and one of faith mentioned in the first Chapter of this Book which are the essential points that constitute a Mahometan or derogate from the Authority of their Governours or produce factions or disturbances in the State But these Modern times have produced other Sects amongst the Turks some of which seem in part dangerous and apt to make a considerable rupture in their long continued union when time changes and revolutions of State shall animate some turbulent spirits to gather Souldiers and followers under these Doctrines and other specious pretences One of which is called Kadezadeli a Sect sprung up in the time of Sultan Morat whose chief propagator was one Birgali 〈◊〉 who invented many Ceremonies in praying for the souls departed at the burial of the dead Those that are of this Sect cause their Imaum to cry loud in the ears of the inanimate body to remember that God is one and his Prophet one Those who are principally devoted to this Sect are the Russians and other sort of Renegado Christians who amongst their confused and almost forgotten notions of the Christian Religion retain a certain Memory of the particulars of Purgatory and prayers for the dead But the opinion esteemed Orthodox and most generally allowed amongst the 〈◊〉 is That no Mahometan goes eternally to Hell but after a certain space of years is delivered thence and passes into Paradise After death they assigne two sorts of punishments the first is called Azabe-Kaberi or the punishment of the Grave which being the bed of wicked men binds with its Earth so fast as crushes their bones and shuts the pores and crevises through which they should see into heaven but the bodies of good men enjoy the comfort of having a window from their dark inclosures to behold the Vision of Gods glory The other is the pain of Hell where the souls remain untill their torments are accomplished and Divine Justice satisfyed There is an opinion of late years principally maintained amongst the Gallants of the Seraglio and common in Constantinople the professors of which are called Chupmessahi or the good followers of the Messiah these maintain that Christ is God and Redeemer of the world the young Schollars in the Grand Signiors Court are generally devoted to this Tenent especially those which are the most courteous 〈◊〉 and best disposed that it is grown into a Proverb amongst them when they would commend and praise gentleness and courtesie of each others nature they do it with the expression of Chupmessahisen as if they would say You are gentle accomplished and excessive in your favours as becomes one who professes the Messiah Of this sort of people there are great numbers in Constantinople some of which have so boldly asserted this Doctrine that they have suffered Martyrdom under this denomination which is still maintained and secretly professed by such multitudes as wear white Turbants that upon some notable opportunity were this cause and Religion made the ground of some Toleration and Insurrection amongst its Disciples and professors it might take an unexpected footing and prepare a ready way for the Plantation of the Gospel but of this we shall speak more hereafter in its due place And because it is our intent here to declare the several Religions amongst the Turks it will not be from our purpose to mention how far Atheism hath spread it self in these Countries And as Logicians illucidate one contrary with another and Painters set off the Whiteness of their Colours with a foil of Jet or other Blackness so the privation of all Religion is not unaptly placed in the same Chapter with the various and different professors of it These then give themselves the Title of Muserin which signifies The true secret is with us which secret is no other then the absolute denial of a Diety that nature or the intrinsecal principal in every individual thing directs the orderly course which we see and admire and that the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars have thence their Original and motion and that man himself rises and fades like the grass or flower It is strange to consider what quantities there are of men that maintain this principle in Constantinople most of which are Kaddees and learned men in the Arabian Legends and others are Renegadoes from the Christian faith who conscious of the sin of their Apostacy and therefore desirous that all things may conclude with this world are the more apt to entertain those opinions which come nearest to their wishes One of this Sect called Mahomet Effendi a rich man Educated in the knowledge of the Eastern Learning I remember was in my time executed for impudently proclaiming his blasphemies against the being of a Diety making it in his ordinary discourse an argument against the being of a God for that either there was none at all or else not so wise as the Doctors preached he was in suffering him to live who was the greatest enemy and scorner of a Divine essence that ever came into the world And it is observable that this man might notwithstanding his accusation have saved his life would he but have confessed his errour and promised for the future an assent to the principles of a better but he persisted still in his blasphemies saying That though there were no reward yet the love of truth obliged him to dye a Martyr I must confess untill now I never could believe that their was a formal Atheism in the world concluding that the principle of the being of a God was demonstrable by the light of nature but it is evident now how far some men have extinguished this light and lamp in their souls This poisonous Doctrine is so Infectious that it is crept into the Chambers of the Seraglio into the apartments of the Ladies and Eunuchs and found entertainment with the Pasha's and their whole Court this sort of people are great favourers

Misfortune to entreat of Peace by which means they may gain time to recollect their Forces and Provisions to prosecute the War It is notable and worthy of Record the treachery of the Treaty used in the year 1604. Begun in the time of Mahomet the third and broken off by Achmat his Successor The overtures for a Treaty were first propounded by the Turks and Commissioners from the Emperour appointed and met the Turks at Buda twelve days truce were concluded for consideration of the Articles and Presents sent by the Turks to the Emperour to perswade him of the reality of their intentions Mahomet dying Sultan Achmat renews his Commission to the Bassa of Buda to continue the Treaty whereupon the Christian and Turks Commissioners have another Meeting at Pesth where whilst the Christians were courteously Feasting the 〈◊〉 in Tents near the Town and they to create in the Christians an assurance of their faithful dealing were producing Letters from 〈◊〉 Sultan and Prime Visier filled with Oaths and Protestations as by the God of Heaven and Earth by the Books of Moses by the souls of their Ancestors and the like that their intentions for Peace were real and meant nothing but what was honourable and just At that very time the Turks of Buda conceiving that in the time of this great jollity and 〈◊〉 the Walls of Pesth were neglected and slightly manned issued 〈◊〉 in great numbers to surprize it the alarm of which ended the Banquet and the Turks finding matters contrary to their expectation returned only with the shame of their treachery It is no wonder the Disciples should in a point of so great liberty and advantage follow the example and Doctrine of their Master for the like Mahomet did when overthrown and repulsed at the siege of Mecha made a firm League with the Inhabitants of strict Peace and Amity but the next Summer having again recruited his Forces easily surprised and took the City whilst that people relying on the late agreement suspected nothing less then the Prophets treachery And that such perfideousness as this might not be Chronicled in future Ages in disparagement of his Sanctity he made it lawful for his Believers in cases of like nature when the matter concerned those who were Infidels and of a different perswasion neither to regard Promises Leagues or other Engagements and this is read in the Book of the institutions of the Mahometan Law called Kitab Hadaia It is the usual form and custom when a noble advantage is espyed on any Country with which they have not sufficient ground of quarrel to demand the opinion of the Muftee for the lawfnlness of War who without consulting other consideration and judgement of the reasonable occasions then the utility of the Empire in conformity to the foregoing president of his Prophet passes his Fetfa or sentence by which the War becomes warrantable and the cause justifyed and allowed It is not to be denyed but even amongst Christian Princes and other the most gallant people of the world advantages have been taken contrary to Leagues and Faith and Wars commenced upon frivolous and slight pretences and States have never wanted reasons for the breach of Leagues though confirmed by Oaths and all the Rites of Religious Vows We know it is controverted in the Schools whether Faith is to be maintained with Infidels with Hereticks and wicked men which in my opinion were more honourable to be out of question But we never read that perfidiousness by Act and Proclamation was allowable or that it was holy to be faithless until the Doctors of the Mahometan Law by the example of their Prophet recorded and commanded this Lesson as a beneficial and useful Axiome to their Disciples And here I cannot but wonder at what I have heard and read in some Books of the Honesty and Justice of the Turks extolling and applauding them as men accomplished with all the vertues of a moral life thence seeming to infer that Christianity it self imposes none of those engagements of goodness on mens natures as the Professors of it do imagine But such men I believe have neither read the Histories nor consulted the rules of their Religion nor practised their conversation and in all points being ignorant of the truth of the Turks dealings it is not strange if through a charitable opinion of what they know not they erre in the apprehension and Character they pass upon them OF THE Turkish Religion BOOK II. CHAP. I. Of the Religion of the Turks in general THe Civil Laws appertaining to Religion amongst the Turks are so confounded into one body that we can scarce treat of one without the other for they conceive that the Civil Law came as much from God being delivered by their Prophet as that which immediately respects their Religion and came with the same obligations and injunctions to obedience And though this Policie was a Fiction of some who first founded certain Governments as Numa Pompilius Solon and the like to put the greater engagements and ties on men as well of conscience as through fear of punishment yet in the general that proposition is true that all Laws which respect Right and Justice and are tending to a foundation of good and honest Government are of God For there is no power but of God and the powers that be are ordained of God And then if God owns the creation and constitution of all Princes and Rulers as well the Pagans as Christians the Tyrants as the indulgent Fathers of their people and Country no less doth he disallow the Rules and Laws fitted to the constitution and Government of a people giving no dispensation to their obedience because their Prince is 〈◊〉 or their Laws not founded according to true reason but the 〈◊〉 of their corrupted judgements or interest It is vulgarly known to all that their Law was compiled by 〈◊〉 with the help of Sergius the Monk and thence this superstition is named Mahometanism whose infamous life is recorded so particularly in many other Books that it were too obvions to be repeated here and therefore we shall insist and take a view of the Rites Doctrines and Laws of the Turkish Religion which is founded in three Books which may not improperly be called the Codes and Pandects of the 〈◊〉 constitutions The first is the Alchoran the second the consent or testimony of Wisemen called the Assonah or the traditions of the Prophets and the third the inferences or deductions of one thing from another Mahomet wrote the Alchoran and prescribed some Laws for the Civil Government the other additions or superstructures were composed by their Doctors that succeeded which were Ebbubecher Omar Ozman and Haly the 〈◊〉 of Babylon and Egypt were other Doctors and Expositors of their Law whose sentences and positions were of Divine Authority amongst them but their esteem of being oraculous failing with their temporal power that Dignity and Authority of infallible determinations was by force of the Sword transferred to the Turkish

and lovers of their own Sect courteous and hospitable to each other and if any by chance receives a Guest within his Gates of their own judgement besides his Diet and Fare with much freedom he is accommodated with a handsome Bed-fellow of which Sex he most delights they are very frank and liberal and excessive in their readiness to do each other service It is said that Sultan Morat was a great favourer of this opinion in his Court and Militia desirous withall to propagate that of Kadizadeli amongst the vulgar that they being a severe morose and covetous people might grow rich and spare for the benefit of his Exchequer for the Sect of Kadizadeli before mentioned is of a melancholy and Stoical temper admitting of no Musick chearful or light discourses but confine themselves to a set Gravity in publick as well as private they make a continual mention of God by a never wearied repetition of these words Ilahe ila Ellah that is I profess there is one God there are some of these that will sit whole nights bending their bodies towards the Earth reciting those words with a most doleful and lamentable Note they are exact and most punctual in the observation of the rules of Religion and generally addict themselves to the study of their Civil Law in which they use constant exercises in arguing opposing and answering whereby to leave no point undiscovered or not discussed In short they are highly Pharisaical in all their comportment great admirers of themselves and scorners of others that conform not to their Tenets scarce affording them a salutation or common communication they refuse to marry their Sons with those of a different rite but amongst themselves they observe a certain policy they admonish and correct the disorderly and such who are not bettered by their perswasions they reject and excommunicate from their Society These are for the most part Tradesmen whose sedentary life affords opportunity and nutriment to a Melancholly and distempred fancy But those of this Sect who strangely mix Christianity and Mahometanism together are many of the Souldiers that live on the confines of Hungary and Bosna reading the Gospel in the Sclavonian tongue with which they are supplyed out of Moravia and the neighbouring City of Ragusa besides which they are curious to learn the Mysteries of the Alchoran and the Law of Arabick tongue and not to be accounted rude and illiterate they affect the Courtly Persian They drink wine in the month of Fast called the Ramazan but to take of the scandal they refuse Cinnamon or other Spices in it and then call it Hardali and passes currant for lawful liquor They have a Charity and Affection for Christians and are ready to protect them from Injuries and Violences of the Turks They believe yet that Mahomet was the Holy Ghost promised by Christ and that the descending of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was a Figure and Type of Mahomet interpreting in all places the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie their Prophet in whose ear so often the White Dove revealed the Infallible directions to happiness The Potures of Bosna are all of this Sect but pay Taxes as Christians do they abhor Images and the sign of the Cross they circumcise bringing the Authority of Christs example for it which also the Copticks a Sect of the Greek Church in Egypt imitated but have now as I am informed lately disused that custom Another subtil point about the Divine Attributes hath begot a Sect amongst the Jenizaries called Bektaschi from one Becktash which seems an improper subject so deep in the Metaphysical speculation to trouble such gross heads as theirs they began as it is said in the time of Solyman the Magnificent and are called by some Zerari that is those who have Copulation with their own kindred and by the vulgar Mumsconduren or extinguishers of the Candle This Sect observe the Law of Mahomet in Divine Worship with a strictness and superstition above any of the Precisions of that Religion but hold it unlawful to adjoyn any attributes to God by saying that God is great or God is merciful by reason that the nature of God being infinite and incomprehensible cannot fall under the weak and imperfect conceptions of mans understanding which can imagine nothing applicable to his nature Of this Sect there was a famous Poet amongst the Turks called Nemisi that was flead alive for saying when the Emaum called the people to prayers at the ordinary hours from the Steeple with the usual word Allah Ekber God is one that he lyed upon the supposition that no Epithite can be predicated of the Divine Essence Amongst the Jenizarites are at present many principal Commanders of this Sect but formerly were more in the time of Becktash Aga Kul Kahya Mahomet Aga and others who for their Rebellion in Constantinople as we related before were put to death under the Historical Pillar in the time of this present Emperours Minority These people against the instinct of nature use Carnal Copulation promiscuously with their own Kindred the Fathers mixing with their Sons and Daughters without respect to proximity of bloud or nearness in the degrees of relation suffering themselves to be transported contrary to the abhorrency of Nature by a weak and illogical comparison of the lawfulness and reason that he who engrafted the Tree and planted the Vine should rather taste of the Fruit then resign the benefit of his labours to the enjoyment of others and in this Argument act against the inclination of innate modesty according to that of Seneca Ferae quoque ipsae Veneris evitant nesas Generisque leges inscius servat pudor These people are easily induced to give false witness or testimony in the favour of their Sect without consideration of Equity or reasonableness of their cause by which means invading the right of others they became rich and powerful untill they were debased by the deprivation of Becktashes Authority and Power of other potent favourers of their Sect and though afterwards upheld by Sudgi Beker a Standard Bearer of the Janizaries a rich and learned man they received a second blow by his death be executed by a Visier Kupriuli Mahomet for his diversity in Religion and Wealth together but farther animosity against this Sect was dissembled at that time by reason of the multitude of those professors in Constantinople and because reason of State saw it at that time necessary to draw bloud in many parts of the Empire for other causes then for Errours in Religion The Sect called Sabin though Mahometans in profession seem yet to run contrary to the stream and general consent of all its professors who give themselves commonly the Title of Enemies and Confounders of Idolatry and yet these notwithstanding seem from the influence the Sun and Moon have on sublunary bodies of all living sensative creatures do conclude a certain Divinity in those common lights of the world In Constantinople there