the Gihon, and in several of the Mahometan principalities in India. Religious controversy has never been carried on with more fury, or religious war with more cruelty, than in the controversies and wars between the sectaries of Ali and Omar. Each sect anathematizes the other, and believes there is more merit in putting one person of the opposite sect to death, than in destroying seventy Christians.

VI. 4. The Turkish, the Persic, the Armenian and the Arabic are the chief languages used by the Mahometans. The original Turkish is said to be a poor and inharmonious language, and to be used only by the lowest class of subjects. The Persic language is much cultivated by the Turks who pretend to taste or elegance. The Arabic is almost a necessary language to a Mahometan, as it is the language of the koran, and all the early writings of the followers of Mahomet. The modern Turkish is the language of the court, and of all per

sons of education. All the emperor's edicts, and all the edicts of his ministers are written in that language. The Chevalier D'Ohsson, in his splendid work, Tableau General de L'Empire Othoman, says it is a noble and harmonious language.

VI. 5. The dynasty of the Abassides introduced learning among the disciples of Mahomet; and, while the rest of Europe was destitute of polite literature, and the greatest part of it sunk in ignorance and barbarism, the arts and sciences flourished from Samarcand and Bochara to Fez and Cordova. The royal library of the Fatimites at Cairo contained above 100,000 manuscripts: 600,000 are said to have existed in the Eslamitic libraries in Spain: "Cor

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dova," to use Mr. Gibbon's words, "with "the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeria, "and Murcia, gave birth to more than 300 "writers, and above 70 public libraries were

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open in the cities of the Andalusian king"dom. The age of Arabian learning con

"tinued about 500 years, till the great ir

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ruption of the Moguls, and was coeval “with the darkest and most slothful period "of European annals; but, since the sun "of science has arisen in the west, it should

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seem that the oriental studies have lan

guished and declined." Still, however, the protection and encouragement of literature, is a declared object of the Ottoman government. In all great towns each mosque has one, and sometimes two colleges belonging to it: they are called Medresses. From these the principal officers of church and state are taken. Most of the mosques in the great cities of the empire have public libraries; Constantinople alone, according to the Chevalier D'Ohsson, contains 35: and each of them holds from 1000 to 2500 volumes, bound in red, green or black morocco, inclosed in a morocco case; each library is furnished with a catalogue. The seraglio has two libraries. They may contain many latin, greek and oriental manu

scripts: Europe, at different times, has been flattered with the hope of discovering in them the original gospel of St. Matthew in Hebrew, all the decades of Livy, and all the books of Diodorus Siculus. This, however, is mere conjecture. About the year 1726, printing was introduced into Constantinople. The Muphti and the principal Oulemas solemnly pronounced it to be a lawful and useful institution, and a royal edict was published authorizing Said Essendi and Basmadjy Ibrahim, the former, a clerk in the customs, the latter, an Hungarian renegado, to print any works, except the koran, the hadis, (or oral laws of the prophet), the commentaries on them, and works of jurisprudence. The patentees printed jointly ten different works. Afterwards Basmadjy Ibrahim printed ten, on his own account, and two great charts, one of the Black, the other of the Caspian sea. He was a man of talents, and an enthusiast in his endeavours to introduce the arts and

sciences of Europe among the Turks. He was patronized by the Porte, and was presented with a military fief, and a pension of ninety-nine aspars, or half farthings of our money, a day. His death suspended the labours of the Turkish press: it was revived by an edict of the Porte in 1784, and was resumed by the publication of an history of the Ottoman empire: it was completed in three volumes, and finishes with the death of Abdul Hamed in 1788.

VIII.

WITH respect to THE EXTENT OF THE COUNTRIES WHERE MAHOMETANISM IS PROFESSED:

On the north, it has been carried to the point, where the Ouralian and Altai mountains meet: thence it may be traced, over little Bucharia, to the southernmost point of Hindustan: and thence in a south-easterly direction, to Goram, (a small island between Ceram and Papua or New Guinea), in