The view of Constantinople from the Golden Horn

The view of Constantinople from the Golden Horn, whether seen from the bridges that cross the harbour, or from Pera, is universally admitted to be as impressive and beautiful a spectacle as any city in the world can present. The visitor of a day recognises its wonderful attractions at the first glance, and long familiarity never allows one to feel satisfied that he has given to the scene all the admiration which it deserves. The dominant feature of the view is lordliness, although beauty is almost equally manifest Men spoke truly when they conferred upon New Home the title “ The Queen of Cities,” for the aspect of the city is not only lovely, but carries in its aspect the unmistakable air of the majesty and authority that befit the capital of a great Empire. Here is an eye “to threaten and command.”

The city spreads itself before you for some three miles on both sides of the Golden Horn, seated upon hills that rise steeply from the water s edge, and lift the long and wide panorama high into view. The buildings are packed close together, and rise tier above tier from the shore to the summit of the hills. Great mosques, rectangular buildings surmounted by domes and flanked by graceful minarets, occupy the most commanding positions, and crown the city with a diadem of oriental splendour.

The Golden Horn, one of the finest harbours in the world, where the war-ships of a nation may ride at ease, and great merchantmen can moor along the shore, is so inwoven with the city as to be its principal thoroughfare, its “ Grand Canal,” alive with boats of every description, and spanned by bridges over which the population streams to and for in great tides.

The city is generally irradiated by an atmosphere of extraordinary clearness, brilliance, and warmth of colour. Sometimes the solid earth seems transfigured by the light into a glorious spiritual essence. Early in the morning, Constantinople is often shrouded in a thick veil of mist, and, as the sun gains strength, it is beautiful to see the veil gradually rent at different points, and the objects it covered emerge, piece by piece, one by one, now here now there, a dome, a minaret, a palace, a red-tiled roof, a group of cypresses, as though a magician was constructing the city anew in your presence, until the immense capital gleams before you in its mighty proportions and minute details.

Nor is the vision less memorable towards sunset, when the lights and shadows paint this varied surface of hills and valleys, of land and water, while the long array of mosques and minarets upon the hills overhanging the Golden Horn rests against the deepening glory of the sky. It is the vision which Browning saw with a poet’s eye:—

Over the waters in the vaporous West the sun goes down as in a sphere of gold behind the arm of the city, which between, with all that length of domes and minarets, athwart the splendour, black and crooked runs Like a Turk verse along a scimitar.

The portion of the Golden Horn to the east of the Galata Bridge is crowded with foreign steamships, among which those bearing the flags of Britain, France, Austria, Italy marriage under comet, Germany, Greece, and Boumania, are the most conspicuous.

It may not be to the credit of the country, nor for its greatest advantage, that so much of the commerce of the place should be in foreign hands, but this gathering of the nations in the harbour of the city is imposing; it is an indication of the central position occupied by the city in the world’s affairs, and contributes largely to form the cosmopolitan character for which Constantinople is distinguished. Here the nations assemble to compete with one another as nowhere else in the world, at least in a way so manifest and decisive. This was a feature of the life of the city also before Turkish days.

Subjects of the Byzantine Empire

There was a time, indeed, during the Middle Ages when the commerce between the East and the West was exclusively in the hands of the subjects of the Byzantine Empire, when the merchants of Constantinople were the merchant princes of the civilised world. But not to speak of the interference of the Saracens with the trade of the city, the formidable competition of the Italian Maritime States began to make itself felt towards the close of the eleventh century, and from that time onwards became more and more serious until it well- nigh destroyed the business carried on by the native inhabitants.

This was due partly to the enterprise of the Italian merchants, and partly to the policy which purchased the aid of the Western States against the foes of the Empire by means of commercial concessions which proved detrimental to domestic trade. It was thus that Alexius Comnenus secured the help of Venice against the Normans, and that Michael Palaeologus obtained the support of the Genoese, when, in 1261, he undertook the task of recovering Constantinople from its Latin occupants.

Religion obtains perfection from the virtuous

RULE V.

A learned man without temperance, is a blind man carrying a link: he showed the road to others, but doth not guide himself, lie who through inadvertency trifled with life, threw away his money without purchasing any thing.

RULE VI.

A kingdom gains credit from wise men, and religion obtains perfection from the virtuous. Kings stand in more need of wise men, than wise men do of appointments at court. Listen, 0 king, to my advice; for you have not more valuable maxim in all your archives than this: “Entrust not your affairs to any but wise men, although public business is not the occupation of the wise.”

Three things are not permanent without three things:—Wealth, without commerce; science, without argument; a kingdom, without government.

RULE VIII.

Showing mercy to the wicked is doing injury to the good; and pardoning oppressors is injuring the oppressed. When you connect yourself with base men and show them favour, they commit crimes with your power, whereby you participate in their guilt.

RULE IX.

You cannot rely on the friendship of kings, nor confide in the sweet voices of boys: for those change on the slightest suspicion, and these alter in the course of a night. Give not your heart to her who has a thousand lovers; but if you should bestow it on her, be prepared for a separation.

RULE X.

Reveal not to a friend every secret that you possess, for how can you tell but what he may some time or other become your enemy. Likewise inflict not on an enemy every injury in your power, for lie may afterwards become your friend. The matter wlucli you wish to preserve as a secret, impart it not to any one, although he may be worthy of confidence, for no one will be so true to your secret as yourself.

It is safer to be silent than to reveal one’s secret to any one, and telling him not to mention it. 0 good man! stop the water at the spring-head, for when it is in full stream you cannot arrest it. You should never speak a word in secret, which may not be related in every company.

Durwesh accompanied

I asking why he did not frequent the city to relieve his mind? He replied, ‘ There dwell many of exquisite beauty: and where there is much clay, the elephants lose their footing.’ ” After making this speech, we mutually kissed and bid each other adieu. What benefit is there in kissing the cheek of a friend at the instant that you are bidding him adieu? It is like an apple with one cheek red and the other yellow. If I die not of grief on the day that I bid adieu, you will not consider me faithful in friendship.

A Durwesh accompanied me in the caravan to Mecca, on whom one of the nobles of Arabia had bestowed a hundred dinars for the support of his family. Suddenly a band of robbers of the tribe of Ivhufacheh attacked the caravan, and plundered it of every thing. The merchants began to cry and lament, and uttered useless complaints. Whether you supplicate, or whether you complain, the thief will not restore the money.

The Durwesh was the only exception; he remaining unshaken, and not at all affected by the adventure. I said to him, “Perhaps, they had not taken your money? ” He answered, “Yes, they carried it off, but I was not so fond of it as to be distressed at losing it. A man ought not to fix his heart on any thing or person, because it is a difficult matter to remove the heart therefrom.” I replied, “Your words suit my circumstance exactly; for in my youth I contracted a friendship for a young man, with so warm an attachment, that his beauty was the Keblah of my eyes, and his society the chief comfort of my life. No mortal on earth ever possessed so beautiful a form; perhaps he was an angel from heaven.

Sacrificed forty camels

TALE XV

They asked Hatim Tai, If he had ever seen or heard of any person in the world more noble-minded than himself? He replied, “One day after having sacrificed forty camels, I went along with an Arab chief to the skirt of a desert, where I saw a labourer, who had made up a bundle of thorns;

whom I asked, Why he did not go to the feast of Hatim Tai, to whose table people were repairing in crowds? He answered, £ Whosoever eateth bread from his own labour will not submit to be under obligation to Hatim Tai.’ I considered this man as my superior in generosity and liberality.”

TALE XVI

Moses the prophet (upon whom be peace!) saw a Durwesh, who, for want of clothes, had hidden himself in the sand. He said, “() Moses, implore God to bestow on me subsistence, for I am perishing in distress.” Moses prayed, and God granted him assistance. Some days after, when Moses was returning from performing his devotions he saw the Durwesh apprehended, and a crowd of people gathered round him. On inquiring, What had happened to him? They replied, “Having drank wine, he made a disturbance and killed a man; now they are going to exact retaliation.”

If the poor cat had wings she would not leave a sparrow’s egg in the world; and if a mean Wretch should happen to get into power, he would become insolent, and twist the hands of the weak. Moses acknowledged the wisdom of the Creator of the Universe, and asked pardon for his boldness, repeating the following verse of the Koran: 1 If God were to open his stores of subsistence for His servants, of a truth they would rebel on the earth.’ O vain man, what hast thou done to precipitate thyself into destruction? Would that the ant had not been able to fly!

When a mean wretch obtains promotion and wealth, of a truth he requires a thump on the head. Is not this the adage of a sage?

It were better for the ant not to have wings.’ Our Heavenly Father hath honey in abundance, but his son is affected with a feverish complaint. He who doth not make you rich, knoweth what is good for you better than you do yourself.

TALE XVII

I saw an Arab sitting in a circle of jewellers of Basrah and relating as follows: “Once on a time, having missed my way in the desert Gregorian calendar, and having no provisions left, I gave myself up for lost, when I happened to find a bag full of pearls. I shall never forget the relish and delight.that I felt on supposing it to be fried wheat; nor the bitterness and despair which I suffered, on discovering that the

bag contained pearls. In tKe parched desert of quicksands, pearls of shells, in the mouth of the thirsty traveller, are alike unavailing. When a man destitute of provisions is fatigued, it is the same thing to have in his girdle gold or potsherds.”

TALE XVIII

An Arab labouring under excessive thirst exclaimed, “I wish that for one day before my death this my desire may be gratified: that a river dashing its waves against my knees, I may fill my leather sack with water.”

In like manner a traveller, who had lost his way in the great desert, had neither strength nor provisions remaining, but a few direms in his girdle. He had wandered about a long time without finding the road, and perished for want. A company of men arrived, saw the direms lying before his face, and the following words written on the ground: “If the man destitute of food were possessed of pure gold, it would avail him nothing. To a poor wretch in the desert parched with the heat of the sun, a boiled turnip is of more value than virgin silver.”