it be considered as a whole or in reference to each of its component institutions. He and his government appointed its most influential personages, maintained careful oversight of its financial support, and kept record of the appointments of all its members who shared in this support. The two great institutions of the Ottoman Empire were therefore joined together at the top, and, as will appear, they touched at every other level both in financial and in governmental relations. The fundamental difference of the two institutions lay in the fact that the members of the Ruling Institution were drawn almost exclusively from Christian families, and the members of the Moslem Institution even more exclusively from Mohammedan families. While it is likely that the majority of the Mohammedan families had sprung from Christian ancestors not many generations back, it is also true that Islam acts rapidly upon the spirit of converts. Accordingly the two institutions were very differently constituted. Between them arose a rivalry of tendency and influence which was to become extremely harmful to the Ottoman state. In this treatise the financial side of the Moslem Institution will be considered, the four great groups of its membership will be discussed in the proportion of their relation to the government, and some attention will be given to the institution as a whole. FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE MOSLEM INSTITUTION[636] As already stated, a large proportion of the land of the Ottoman Empire, perhaps one-third,[637] was set aside as _vakf_, or religious endowment. Much of this had been so devoted by sultans, and in such cases the imperial treasury could use for its own purposes none of the revenue or income from these lands. Other parcels of land had been set apart by private individuals, in these instances the treasury receiving for its own use the same revenues as before the endowment, while the surplus income from the land was devoted to the purposes specified by the giver. Each tract of such land was by the original act of endowment assigned to a particular object, and a _Muteveli_ or administrator and a _Nazir_ or inspector were appointed to take care of it. In a large proportion of cases a high official of the government or household, such as the grand vizier, the _Mufti_, the _Kapu Agha_, or the _Kizlar Agha_, was put in charge _ex officio_ in one or the other capacity, on the theory that, being near the person of the sultan, he would be subject to constant control. In course of time the _Kizlar Agha_, the grand vizier, and the _Mufti_ found it necessary to organize the properties under their charge by holding private Divans of the subordinate administrators and inspectors, and by appointing _Mufettishes_, or special judges, each with a staff of subordinates and travelling inspectors.[638]