[689] Hammer, _Staatsverfassung_, 100. See above, p. 203, note 1. [690] See above, p. 116. [691] Spandugino, 211. [692] _Ibid._ [693] The Arabic words _kadi al asker_ signify judge of the army. In the sixteenth century the pronunciation seems to have been _kadi l’esker_; nowadays it is _kazi asker_. The burdensome duty of holding court continually is mentioned in Spandugino, 96; D’Ohsson, iv. 581. [694] Postel, i. 123. Heidborn, 141-143, note 15, quotes from Ypsilanti an interesting description of a session of the grand vizier’s court. [695] Postel, i. 127, iii. 8. [696] _Ibid._ iii. 9. [697] Hammer, _Geschichte_, iii. 11. [698] _Ibid._ 61. [699] Ricaut, 3. [700] Garzoni, 430. See also Morosini, 273. [701] Postel, i. 124. Matters were distinctly worse in Ricaut’s time (pp. 140-141). [702] Spandugino, 114. [703] It has been suggested (Morosini, 273) that the promptness of justice had a connection with the early military character of the Moslems. [704] Spandugino, 211, 255. [705] Postel, i. 127, iii. 87. [706] _Ibid._ i. 117. [707] _Ibid._ [708] The use of cannon is perhaps the most conspicuous example. [709] Halil Ganem, i. 201. [710] Spandugino, 207: “And the Turkish lords generally, as well great as small, study only to build churches and hospitals and to enrich and make hostelries for lodging travelers, to improve the roads, to build bridges, to construct baths, and several other charitable works which they do in such a way that I suppose the Turkish lords are beyond comparison greater alms-givers than our Christian lords; and in proportion as they have good zeal, they use great hospitality. They voluntarily lodge Christian, Turk, and Jew alike.” See also Morosini, 270. [711] He built seven mosques (Hammer, _Geschichte_, iii. 456), four colleges at Mecca (_ibid._ 459), four colleges around the Suleimanieh Mosque (_ibid._ 470), and endowed them all, etc. [712] See above, p. 150. [713] Ramberti came overland from Ragusa on his journey from Venice to Constantinople. [714] The writer seems not to have observed that these groves were cemeteries. [715] The writer evidently did not know that this Egyptian obelisk consists of a single stone. It actually rests on four bronze cubes. [716] This was the support of the tripod of the priestess at Delphi. The heads have been broken off, and are now in the treasury of the Old Seraglio at Constantinople. [717] This was overthrown at the downfall of Ibrahim in 1536. [718] This remarkable statement is probably the source of Nicolay’s similar idea (p. 77). The Danube is more than two hundred miles distant from Constantinople. [719] Rather, of the Sea of Marmora. [720] _Marrani_: Jews and Moors of Spain, baptized, but remaining true to their own religion. [721] This statement and the following one are certainly exaggerations.