III. The Modem or Turkish C»<y.— With Christian nations the city retains its Greek name, Constantino- ple. The Turks call it Siamboul, or Istamboul; also Assitana, The beauty of situation of the city is world-renowned. Each of the seven hills is crowned by a mosque, with its tall slender minarets. The rich profusion of foliage from the public and private gar-
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dens blends witb the brown of the nnpainted wooden * houses, and contrasts with the white of the mosqnes ' and other public buildings, presenting a picturesque effect to be seen in no other European city. The har- bor is crowded with vessels and steamers fhmi all parts of the world. Slight, slender caiques dart between the larger boats, and give an unusual animation to the already over-crowded harbor. The suburbs of Pera and Galata rise on the other side of the Golden Horn, covered with massive palaces and stone houses. Across the Bosphorus is Scutari, with its vast, daiic, cypresi- bound cemeteries ; and in the distance the snow-cap- ped Olympus raises its head above the horizon.
Constantini^le is at present the capital of the Turk- ish empire, of which it forms a distinct province. It is the residence also of the Greek patriarch, who holds here the patriarchal synod, composed of twelve bish- ops. Here are also an Armenian patriardi and a Greek-Catholic bishop, llie Protestant missions of £urope and America for the Orient have their head- quarters in Constantinople. The city, with its imme- diate suburbs, contains above a miUion inhabitants. Stamboul, or the old city, contains about half this num- ber. More than half of the population are Turks ; the remainder are Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, and some thousands each of nearly every nation of Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. . Within, the city loses much of its charm. The streets are narrow, uncleanly, and full of dogs ;• they are not lighted, and every passer-by, after nightfall, is arrested if he has not a lighted lantern : the streets are not named, nor the houses numbered, (a) The houses are almost entirely of wood, are nnpainted, of two or three stories, and have projecting latticed win- dows, (b) Of pvblic squares there are but few of im- portance. The chief are the Hippodrome (see above, d) and the Sercukai PUust, containing the offices of the war department and the lofty, fine tower from which is to be obtained the finest view of Constantinople and its environs. This place is about a mile in circumfer- ence, (c) The Seraglio^ once so famous as the splen- did palace of the sultans, had not been u|^ as a royal palace since the erection of the new Seraglio on the Bosphorus. It was burned in 1865. Near the old seraglio is the office of the grand vizier, entered by the "Sublime Porte," where the sessions of the cabi- net are held, and where the sultan meets the foreign ambassadors. There are many kiosks, or royal sum- mer-houses on the Bosphorus and the Grolden Horn. (d) Constantinople contains thirteen imperial mosques, above a hundred large mosques (or Djami, i. e. places of reunion), and more than a hundred besides of small- er mosques (or Medjid, i. e. places of prayer). The chief mosque is that of Omar. See St. Sophia. The second mosque of importance is that of Achmet ike First (built in 1610). Here are celebrated with great pomp the festival of Bairam, that of Mevloud (the birth of the Prophet), and that of the departure of the caravans for Mecca. It is said to contain a piece of the black stone of Mecca. («) Churches and Synagogues. — ^The Greeks have twenty-one churches in the old city. Of these, St. George^s (see above, II, 2) is the chief or patriarchal church. The Armenians have a number of churches, among them the Patriarckal church (or, rather, two churches — one for men, the other for women), and the Church of the Nine Angel- choirs, containing a *' miracle-working pillar," to which the sick of fevers are brought. The Romish and Protestant churches are in Pera. There are sev- eral synagogues in the old city. The British and American Bible Societies have tbeir head-quarters in the old city. (/) There are many Mohammedan mon- asteries for the different orders of dervishes, and also several Greek monasteries, (g) Burial-places for the Turks are found near all the mosques. Burial-chapels (Turb^) for the sultans, the founders of mosques, and their families, are found within the inclosure of the
mosques, (k) ThepubUc i 1847. Schools were divided into three grades. At- tendance upon the primary schools is obllgatoiy. In them are taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geogra- phy, religion, history of the Turkish empire, and the Turkish language. In the second grade, the hiatoiy of the Mohammedan religion, mathematics, nstoral sci- ence, and other branches are taught. The terhmrd schools are many in number, as the two Bcfaoola ia tfe mosqnes of Achmet and Selim for the persons deagnwl for civil offices ; the school founded by the soltaness ia 1850 for the education of diplomatists «Dd other hi^ officers of state ; the colleges for the edacetioo of the ulemas or priests ; the schools of military and Banl instruction ; the college of medicine ; the veterinary, and other schools. All of these are supported by the state when the endowments do not suflioe. The Uni- versity, comprising many of their highest scbools, lai a large building, but is only partly organised. The school systems of the Christians and Jews stand un- der the direction of their church authorities, and sr much neglected, (t) Of libraries there are over a ban- dred smaller ones connected witb the mosqnes, asi forty large ones, some of which have &a» rooms, sad are accessible to non-Mohammedans.