The Sun.
London, England, 1828-01-18 00:00:00

EDUCATION OF A YOUNG SULTAN.

The presumptive heirs, who bear the title of
shah-zade, or sons of the shah, are shut up, each
separately, in fill isolated apartment in the inte-
rior of the seraglio, in the middle of a large
garden. Their apartments arc prisons, called
Kafesses, or iron cages. Surrounded by high
walls, these apartments contain only these un-
happy shah-zades, attended by f cur or five
eunuchs, and five or six slaves, old enough not
to become mothers. The reigning si :hail, seeing
. their persons so many rivals, constantly
watches their conduct ; lets no one approach
them ; prohibits, under pain of death, all corres-
pondence with them ; and leaves them to vege-
tate in entire ignorance of every thing passing in
the empire. He appoints for their preceptors
persons in whom he has confidence, old decrepit
men, who teach them the rudiments of the
Arabic () and Persian languages, as well as
; and for their amusement he appoints
some of his eunuchs to be their pages, who in-
struct them in some of the most vulgar mechani-
cal arts. When the reigning Sultan has younger
brothers, he conducts himself towards them in
the same way. The sons of the reigning Sultan
we also totally neglected, in point of education,
during their adolescence. This, in a few words,
is the distinguished education which those re-
ceive who are destined to govern such an empire.
The greater number of the Sultans are already
old when they mount the throne. If the revolt
et' the Janissaries had not precipitated &limn
from his throne ; if his nephew, Mustapha IV.
the brother of the present Sultan, had not expe-
rienced a similar fate,Malnnoud would have
reigned in his decrepitude. These heirs of the
empire, passing the greater part of their lives in
the prison ofthe Cafissa, in the lassitude of com-
plete idleness, deprived of every kind of pleasure
and amusement, no sooner quit their state of im-
prisonment, than, surrounded by a swarm of
flatterers, by hands6me slaves, and by various
objects of' enjoyment, they blindly plunge into
Sardanapalism, and abandon, to the mercy of
their eunuchs and their flatterers, rarely to the
administration of their ministers, the affairs of
the empire, in which they-haye never been exer-
cised, and of whicli„ therefore, they are totally
ignorant. , • • ,
Immediately after the elevation of a Sultan to
the throne, the eunuch who -attended him in the
cafissa in the quality of firs page, becomes his
Kizlar agassi. This title literally signifies " su-
perintendent of the girls ;" he generally bears
that of Dams' -saade agassi, or " Master of the
Palace of Felicity." As ignorant of the art of
r,overninr, as his master, the chief of the black
eunuchs enjoys full power, both in the seraglio
and throughout the empire. His person, ren-
dered hideous by his physical impotence, is
considered sacred, and his rank is equal to that
of the grand vizier ; not only in his quality of
first chief of the imperial harem, but also be-
cause he is Haremein ntatevelliss,y, that is,
" inspector:of all the revenues of the KiaW."
His influence is so great, that he frequently
changes and appoints the grand viziers, the grand
admirals, the ministers, and the pachas, gover-
nors of the provinces (-1-.)
The (Dr the Sultan's sword-bearer,
being the chief of all the dignitaries of the scraghi°, the eunuchs excepted, has also considerable
influence in the affairs of the Empire. If he be
a skilful intriguer, from his own apartment he
deposes, appoints, and causes the decapitation of
grand vizers and pachas. In the same way, the
inferior dignitaries, such as the first page, whose
function it is to put on and take off the Sultan's
boots ; the individual who presents him with a
cup of coffee ; his first barber, or any other of
the Sultan's dignitaries, if they succeed in obtain-
ing his favour, govern the State. The first bar-
ber, above all, as he handles the sacred head of

(*) Almost all the Sultans, after -Suleiman, who esta•
blished the imperial ordinance/of shutting up the presump-
tive heirs till the day of their elevation to the throne, were
in the grossest ignorance on quitting their prison.; The
Spartan brevity of their autographic orders betrayed their
lack of knowledge. They consisted but of three words,
mudz&-bigdze avid oloona, that is, ,‘ let every one act in
conformity thereto." We must add, by the bye; that the
orders said to be the autographs of the Sultan, are only'
one, two, or four lines, Written in his own hand, at the
top of the order drawn up and written by the clerks of the
public offices of the Porte. We have seen several notes
by the Sultan Mustapila IV.', the brother of the present
Sultan, addressed to his favourites. They were so full of
orthographical errors, and the writing was so bad, that
they could not be deciphered. Mahmoud, who was'eape_
cially beloved by his unCle Selim, received it more careful
education, that is to say, he studied Arabic and Persian,
and read and digested the Koran, which rendered him
extremely fanatic and superstitious. His autographic
orders were full of verses of the Koran. He highly prized
fine hand-writing. On his elevation to the throne lie Or-
dered all the penmen of Colibtantinople to send him speci-
MenS of their talents. One of the ministers of the Porte,
"Nod ilfazhetr-efendy, presented also his own to his' high-
ness, who considered it superior to 'all the others. The
base Minister,, to thank his master, and, at the same time,
to show his Modesty, sent him, in writing, the celebrated
line of a Persian poet :--
BAer aibi khe shah pei,4se„dici huner est;
that is to say, "All defect, approved by, the Shah, becomes
exiellenee." This vile and absurd flattery pleased the Sul-
tan, who named him Reise-efendy, or minister for foreign
atTairs. ,

(t) The annals of the Turkish empire mention many
Kizlur-aigassi who played a great part in the affairs of the
state. Under the reign of Sultan Achmet 111., his chief
of the black eunuchs was the factotum of his empire.
According to his Caprice, he appointed, deposed, and caused
to be put to death, the Grand Viziers and the Ministers.
One of the Grand Viziers, foreseeing the fate which awaited
him, resolied, at the peril of •his' life, to get rid of this
monster. He feigned one day to be' seriously ill, and
wrote to the Sultan a short note, saying that he had to
disclose to him a most important Secret, and pressing af-

fair : and that, being extremely weak, he was not able to
state it in writing, and, therefore, humbly prayed him to
order the chief of the eunuchs to call on him incognito,
that he might communicate the business to him. The
Sultan immediately sent the black to the Vizier. On his
arrival, the Vizier's pages seized him, stripped him, dressed
him in the habit of the black slaves which they wear when
they are exposed for sale in the market, and immediately sum-
umed a slave-merchant, whom they enjoined to take the slave
to the bazaar to put him up to auction, and, having ascer-
tained the price that he would fetch, to bring him back to
the Vizier's palace. The merchant, not knowing the eu-
nuch, punctually executed the orders of the Grand Vizier.
The Kizlar-ayassi, seventy years of age, was estimated in
the market at twenty-five Turkish piastres; and then
brought back to the Vizier. The latter then wrote a se-
cond note to the Sultan, the purport of which was, that
seeing that a eunuch directed and governed the empire, he
had been desirous to ascertain his intrinsic value, and had
caused him to he exposed at the bazaar, where, during five
hours, only five-and-twenty piastres had been offered for
his purchase; and that, if his laigluiess would deign -to
confide anew the reigns of his Government to the hands of
a black who was worth only twenty-five piastres, he might
do so, if he chose. This conduct of the Grand Vizier
made such an impression on the mind of the Sultan, that
he told him, in reply, to dispose of the eunuch at his own
pleasure. The Vizier caused him to be strangled.

YORK CORPORATION.—Tuesday being the
Cliarter*Day for the election of the LORD MAYOR, and
Chamberlains of this city, for the ensuing year, the mem-
bers of the Corporation assembled for the purpose, at Ole
Guildhall, when Alderman GEORGE CHAMFNEY, Es ~
was chosen into the important office of Chief Magistra e.
-=York .Courant.,