Constantinople, painted by Warwick Goble, described by Alexander Van MillingenVan Millingen, Alexander
Philosophy
Constantinople, painted by Warwick Goble, described by Alexander Van Millingen
Van Millingen, Alexander
Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Istanbul (Turkey) -- History
of your own Government, it is natural that European residents in
Constantinople should be able to preserve their special character, both
after living here for many years, and also from generation to
generation. A Mohammedan polity is opposed to the assimilation of
strangers, unless the aliens become converts to Islam. Whatever process
of assimilation goes on in Constantinople appears in the slow changes of
the East towards some likeness to the West. Otherwise, the European
world is as present to the view as the Asiatic, and together they spread
a wide vista before the mind.
Furthermore, what a broad outlook does the heterogeneous population
afford! Whether you walk the streets or stay at home, on the mart of
business, at all large social gatherings, in all public enterprises, you
deal with diverse nationalities and races. Everywhere and always a
cosmopolitan atmosphere pervades your life. One servant in your
household will be a Greek, another an Armenian, a third a German or an
Englishman. Your gardener is a Croat, as tender to flowers as he is
fierce against his foes. The boatmen of your caïque are Turks. In
building a house, the foundations are excavated by Lazes; the quarrymen
must be Croats; the masons and carpenters are Greeks and Armenians; the
hodmen, Kurds; the hamals, Turks; the plumbers, Italians; the architect
is an Englishman, American, or a foreigner of some other kind; the
glaziers must be Jews. Fourteen nationalities are represented by the
students and professors of an international college.
When the season of pilgrimages comes round, the streets are thronged by
Tartars, Circassians, Persians, Turcomans, on their way to Mecca and
Medina, wild-looking fellows in rough but picturesque garb, staring with
the wonder and simplicity of children at the novelties they see,
purchasing trifles as though treasures, yet stopping to give alms to a
beggar, and groping for the higher life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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