tan, in order to render it more ornamental, was defirous of adding to it fix minarets, in the form of turrets: but as this wa the characteristic diftinction of the mofque at Mecca, his project was oppofed by the mufti. The prince was politic enough to respect this remonftrance, while he was determined to accomplish his defign; and he added a feventh minaret to the mofque of the prophet. To this building is the academy annexed. The fultan Mahamud, forming a defign to build a mofque in the most modern tafte, procured various plans and models from Italy, England, and France. But the plan which he formed from theft, being prefented to the religious, they objected that it refembled a Chriflian temple rather than a mofque, and advised him to give it more of the Mohammedan form, that he might not offend the populace, and expofe himself to an infurrection. Obliged to fubmit in part, he united the two ftyles of architecture; adding the elegance of the European, to the majesty of the Ottoman manner. Ofman the third, having completed the building, ob tained a fetfa from the mufti to give it the name of Ofmania; and as it had not been completed and confecrated to Gud, be was empowered to confider it as his own property. The academy has three colleges and three profeffors, exclufive of the interpreter of the Koran, and the muderis who teaches arithmetic. The ftudents are from 150 to 170 in number. In the year 1178 of the Hegira, (1764, Chrift.) Mustapha III. erected a university at Laleli, which has feveral colleges, five profeffors, and about 130 ftudents. The academy of the fultana Valide was erected by the late emperor Aldullahmid, in the year 1194 (1780, Chriftian æra). It takes its name from the mother of Moham med IV. The principal is profeffor of geometry and aftronomy, well skilled in the law, poffeffed of much ornamental learning, and is very polite and communicative. The ftudents amount to about 180. They have separate chambers, take but one meal in the twenty-four hours, and may not have a wife; thefe regulations being thought neceffary to keep the head clear, and the mind at cafe. For a more circumftantial account of thefe inftitutions, we refer to the work itfelf. The Abbé proceeds to treat of the public libraries of Conftantinople. We shall give the plan in the words of the author:

I propofe to communicate to the public, an account of the most diftinguithed libraries, to notice their founders, and the time in which they were founded; to mention the claffes of books, and the number of volumes in each clafs; and to particularize fuch manufcripts as are mofl worthy of diftinction; adding occafionally, fome notes of my own. This effay, which is the fruit of much pains and expence, by being prefented to the republic of letters, may, perhaps, excite fome perton well filled in the Oriental languages, to form, under the auipices of fome generous and powerful Mæcenas, a digefted catalogue of all the manufcripts in the Turkish libraries, which will enrich the literature and fciences of Europe with a new fund of knowlege.'

Mohammed

Mohammed the fecond opened the firft public libraries for the Ottomans at Conftantinople; these were afterward multiplied by. he munificence of fultans and vifirs, and the philofophic fpirit of he learned. On the principle that the value of a thing increases

our eftimation in exact proportion to the difficulties of obcaining it, the minute defcription given of the library of the Seraglio, with a complete catalogue annexed, will be deemed a moft invaluable prefent to the public.

This library, the Abbé obferves, has been hitherto inacceffible to ftrangers. Travellers who have spoken of it, and the learned who have reasoned concerning it, fitting in their ftudies at their eafe, have confided in vague and fabulous reports. The Abbé Sevin, who went to Conftantinople in the year 1728, to purchafe Greek manuscripts. for the king of France's library, was not able to penetrate into this fanctuary. He was told that the fultan Amurat had entirely de=ftroyed every Greek manufcript. This anfwer, which fatisfied the I traveller, was given merely to avoid an exprefs refufal. I made various attempts to fee this library, but I was long deceived by numberlefs promiles and evafions. I fought to obtain a catalogue, but it was difficult to know for a certainty if there was one. It is not eafy to gain access to the Seraglio, and yet lefs to fee the library, which is in the most retired part of the building. The Turks alfo, naturally diftruftful, fuperftitious, and full of prejudices, believe that a fingle glance of an Infidel's eye on thefe manufcripts, would endanger this palladium, on which the fafety of the Ottoman empire depends.'

At length, after three years, he was fo fortunate as to obtain his defire by the friendly aid of a nobleman now refident at Madrid, who was intimately connected with men of the first rank at Conftantinople, and found means to procure tranfcripts of the catalogue at diftant intervals, through the hands of a page of the Seraglio, who clandeftinely tranfcribed a few lines every day. It now appears that the merits of this literary curiofity have been much enhanced. It is in itself inferior to fome of the other Jibraries. Commentaries, explanations, marginal notes, &c. on the Koran, occupy the largest portion; to thele fucceed treatises on jurifprudence, alfo with commentaries and marginal notes. The hiftories are not numerous, and are chiefly confined to the Ottoman empire. Under philofophy, we obferve the mysteries of nature, the truths of Plato, of Pliny, and Ariftotle's logic. Two queftions, however, are refolved by this acquifition, which have long divided the learned world. It has been afferted that there were no manufcripts in this library in any other languages than the Oriental; but it now appears that it contains feveral in the Greek, Latin, and other European languages. Many of the literati have cherished the idea that the Decades of Livy, the works of Tacitus, and the poems of Homer, were depofited in this library. It was even afferted, on the establishment of a printing-prets at Conftantinople, that the works of Livy were going

to

to be printed off in the Turkish language. But all these hope are diffipated; as neither of these works can be found. Amor other curiofities contained in the library of Mohammed the fecon is the Koran in Cufic characters. The learned Abbé hent: takes occafion to prefent us with a differtation, in the form d a letter addreffed to Signior E. Borgia, fecretary of the company de propaganda fide, on two very ancient manufcripts of the Kran, and fome Cufic coins, which reflect much light on orienta literature. This letter difplays profound erudition, and muc critical acumen.

The learned author proceeds to give, in the third volume, j circumftantial history of Turkish typography. It is a well known | fact, that the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, have printed books at Conftantinople, for feveral years palt. The Pentateuch wal published by the Jews in the Chaldean, Perfian, Arabic, and Hebrew languages, in the year 1646. At the end of the book of Genefis is found the following fentence: This book of Gris printed in the houfe of Eliezer Soncino. Nay, in the year 1488, an Hebrew Lexicon, under the title of Leffons for Youth, was illued from a prefs at Conftantinople. But no printing-pres was established among the Ottomans before the year 1726. This event introduces a new and important æra in Turkish literature. As it will, probably, in a courfe of years, by diffufing knowlege, Jead to a total revolution in the fentiments and manners of the Turks, the following account of its introduction cannot be unacceptable to our readers. It is taken, the Abbé informs us, from the Supplement to the Ottoman annals of Rafcid, printed at Conftantinople by Celebi Zadé Effendi, in the Turkish lan guage.

Said Effendi, who had accompanied, in his youth, his father Mohammed Effendi in nis embafly to Paris, amid a multitude of other useful curiofities which engaged his attention, was ftruck with the ingenuity of the invention of printing, and the facility with which books were, by thefe means, multiplied. On his return to Conftantinople, he communicated the affair to Ibraim Effendi, a lover of literature; and they united their influence to remove every obftacle that might oppofe itfelf to fo novel and arduous an undertaking. Ibraïm circulated a treatife in manufcript, in which he enlarged on and enforced the advantages ing from fo curious an invention; and prefented the work to the grand vizier Ibraim Pacha, who was an encourager of literature.

The Cufic character is not be confounded with the Coptic or Egyptian. It is fuppofed to be the invention of Marar, the fon of Mora, who flourished a little before the prophet. It takes its name from the city Cufa, where it was ufed by the learned. It continued in ufe till toward the end of the third century of the Hegira: when It was fupplanted by the Arabic character.

By

f

By thefe means, it was diffused among the most confiderable peronages in the empire. After many deliberations, in which the octors of the law were confulted, the mufti pronounced that ooks on religious fubjects fhould be excluded; but all fuch as reated of the Arabic language, hiftory, and the fciences, might be rinted. This favourable fentence being obtained from the mufti, Abdullah Effendi, the grand vizier, procured a licence from the mperor; and this edict of the fultan was infcribed in the anals of the empire. Four fuperintendants were appointed to vatch over the correction of the prefs, and to enforce the imSerial edict. Ibrahim Effendi was placed by Achmet the third .t the head of this inftitution; and the bufinefs was conducted In his own houfe, in concert with Said Effendi. These two earned men, being guided by the advice of the mufti and the noft intelligent of the Ottomans, made choice of fuch books as were deemed the most neceffary and the most useful to cultivate he minds of the people. Ibrahim Effendi wrote the life of Kiatib Celebi, named alfo Hagi Calfah, a Turk juftly celebrated for his kill in the fciences. He tranflated the Journal of the Traveller, or the Hiftory of the Irruption of the Aguhans, their war with the Perfians, and the deftruction of the Perfian empire; compofed, tranflated, and corrected feveral other works, fuperintended every publication that iffued from the prefs, procured engravings of geographical, hydrographical, and aftronomical charts, caft the types, and was the foul of the printing-prefs. Two years elapfed from the time in which the imperial licence was granted to the impreffion of the first work. The Arabic dictionary of Wanculi marks the illuftrious epoch which enriches the Ottoman literature. It was published in the year of the Hegira 1141 (of the Chriftian æra 1728) in two volumes in folio, both being publifhed together. This work is highly valued by the Turks. All the Arabic words are explained and accompanied by quotations I from the most celebrated Arabic authors, in order to afcertain the fignification and force of the word."

The extent of this article will not permit us to give more circumítantial details of the publications that have iffued from the Ottoman prefs. We fhall only obferve that the fubjects feem to be well chofen. The greater number confift of the hiftory and annals of the empire of the Turks, and their wars with other nations, digefted in a regular feries: which will doubtlefs furnish ample materials for a more authentic hiftory of the eastern nations, as well as of the Turkish empire, than any that have yet been communicated to the public. The Abbé TCDERIN! gives very interefting and entertaining abridgments of moft of the publications which he mentions.

Cog.

ART.

ART. XXVII.

Geographische Gefchichte des Menfchen, &c. i. e. A Geographical E tory of Man, and of the Quadrupeds which are difperfed over different Parts of the Earth; with a zoological Map, adapta the fame. By E. A. W. Zimmerman, Profeffor of Caroline Colleg Brunfwick. 8vo. 3 Vols. 1018 Pages. Leipfic.

P

OWERFUL are the objections urged by many celebra proficients in natural hiftory, themselves, against art arrangements, in the ftudy of that moft extenfive cience. T allege, and with juftice, that no fyftem can be perfect unti.co knowlege of the fubject itself be perfect and complete: that th who form artificial arrangements, ever attentive to more mat fimilarities, frequently place in the fame class, bodies, whofe gra and leading characteristics are the moft oppofite to each oute that too great a predilection for mere claffification, (which, fact, is no other than forming a general index to natural hifton. is apt to draw the attention from what is the most intere and important in the fcience, to things which are the most thr and may be merely accidental; and that it induces men to in gine, that a familiar acquaintance with fome favourite fyfe conftitutes the effence of the fcience; although this abfurdity not greater than it would be to maintain with Hudibras, That all a Rhetorician's rules

Lie in the NAMING of his TOOLS.

Yet to difcard fyftems altogether, is an oppofite error, of, per haps, a ftill more pernicious tendency. Without fome arrang ment, a collection of facts is but rudis indigeftaque males, difficul to be retained in the memory; and almoft ufelefs from th want of being directed to fome determinate object. It muft fur ther be granted that this natural love of fyftem, which is but the le of order, has been of much occafional benefit to the science. F the very attention which has been given to those peculiarities c which fyftems are founded, have very confiderably increa our knowlege of the minutiae of nature, whether we receive a reject the favourite order that gave rife to these discoveries.

The grand defideratum is, to obferve the due medium; t chufe fuch a plan as may affift and direct the ftudent in his pur fuit of knowlege, and not deceive or embarrass him by flighter fimilarities or differences. In our opinion, few plans have been better calculated to answer this defirable end, than that propofed by Profeffor ZIMMERMAN, in the work before us. This ce lebrated author has laboured many years, with indefatigable industry, and no fmall degree of fuccefs, in the extenfive vine yard of natural hiftory. His plan of ftudy has enabled him to contemplate zoology in general, in a fingular and very interef ing point of view. Yet his principal attention has been directed to that branch of the natural hiftory of men and quadrupeds,