It was ordained by the regulations of Sultán Mohammed the Conqueror, and that ordinance has been renewed by a khatisheríf (imperial rescript) from all his successors, that any offender whom these officers shall apprehend, if he be a soldier, shall receive no mercy, but be hung upon a tree forthwith. In fine, in the districts on both sides of the Strait of the Black Sea, there are thirty-three magistrates, and thirty-five local judges, deputies of the Móllá, in the city. But the town of Bey-kós has a separate jurisdiction, the judge of which is appointed by the Munejjim Báshí (astronomer royal). Besides the judges and magistrates already enumerated, there are also 166 District Judges, subordinate to the four Móllás of Islámból, 360 Subáshís, eighty-seven guards of janissaries, with their commanding officers (serdárs), and forty Subáshís of the free vakfs (charitable foundations). In short, the whole number of Kázís and Súbáshís within the precincts of Islámból, established by the code (_kánún_) of Mohammed the Conqueror, amounts to twelve hundred. There are also within the same jurisdiction the governors and magistrates of 150 corporations of tradesmen; but these governors have no legal authority to imprison and punish; they can only determine questions respecting the statutes of the corporations over which they preside. SECTION XV. _On the Imperial Mosques in the Mohammedan City of Kostantaniyyeh._ The first, and most ancient of these places of worship dedicated to the almighty and everlasting God, is that of Ayá Sófiyah, built, as mentioned in the seventh Section, in the year 5052 after the fall of Adam. It was finished by Aghnádús (Ignatius?), a perfect architect, well skilled in geometry, under the direction of the Prophet Khizr; and forty thousand workmen, seven thousand porters, and three thousand builders, were employed in raising its domes and arches on three thousand pillars. Every part of the world was ransacked to find the richest marbles, and the hardest stones for its walls and columns. Stones of various hues, fit for the throne of Belkís, were brought from Ayá Solúgh (Ephesus) and Aïdinjik; marbles of divers colours were removed from Karamán, Shám (Syria), and the island of Kubrus (Cyprus). Some thousands of incomparable columns, wasp and olive-coloured, were imported from the splendid monuments of the skill of Solomon, standing in the neighbourhood of Átineh (Athens). After working at the building for forty years, Khizr and Aghnádús disappeared one night when they had finished half the dome. Seven years afterwards they appeared again and completed it. On its summit they placed a cross of gold an hundred Alexandrian quintals in weight, visible at Brúsah, Keshísh-dágh (Mount Olympus), ’Alem-dághí, and Istránjeh dághí. On the birth-night of the Prophet there was a dreadful earthquake, by which this and many other wonderful domes were thrown down; but it was afterwards restored by