83 Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant, edited by J. Theodore Bent, p. 210. (London, 1893.) Similarly, Michel Baudier concludes his description of the festivities in Constantinople on the occasion of the circumcision of Muḥammad III in the latter part of the sixteenth century, with an account of the conversion of a large number of Christians. “During the spectacles of this solemnity, the wretched Grecians ran by troupes in this place to make themselves Mahometans; Some abandoned Christianitie to avoid the oppression of the Turkes, others for the hope of private profit.… The number of these cast-awayes was found to be above foure thousand soules.” (The History of the Serrail, and of the Court of the Grand Seigneur Emperour of the Turkes, pp. 93–4. (London, 1635.) Histoire generale du Serrail, et de la Cour du Grand Seigneur, Empereur des Turcs, pp. 89–90. (Paris, 1631.)) ↑
90 A. J. Evans, p. 267. Similarly Mackenzie and Irby say: “In most parts of Old Serbia the idea we found associated with a bishop, was that of a person who carried off what few paras the Turks had left” (p. 258). A similar account of the clergy of the Greek Church is given by a writer in the Revue des Deux Mondes (tome 97, p. 336), who narrates the following story: “Au début de ce siècle, à Tirnova, un certain pope du nom de Joachim, adoré de ses ouailles, détesté de son évêque, reçut l’ordre, un jour, de faire la corvée du fumier dans l’écurie épiscopale. Il se rebiffa: aussitôt la valetaille l’assaillit à coups de fourche. Mais notre homme était vigoureux: il se débattit, et, laissant sa tunique en gage, s’en fut tout chaud chez le cadi. Le soleil n’était pas couché qu’il devenait bon Musulman.” ↑
96 Turchicæ Spurcitiæ Suggillatio, fol. xiii. (b); fol. xv. (b); fol. xvii. (b); fol. xx. (a). Veniero, pp. 32, 36. Busbecq, p. 174. ↑
99 Alexander Ross, p. ix.; he calls the Qurʼān a “gallimaufry of Errors (a Brat as deformed as the Parent, and as full of Heresies, as his scald head was of scurf),”—“a hodg podge made up of these four Ingredients. 1. Of Contradictions. 2. Of Blasphemy. 3. Of ridiculous Fables. 4. Of Lyes.” ↑
104 “Dum corpora exterius fovendo sub pietatis specie non occidit: interius fidem auferendo animas sua diabolica astutia occidere intendit. Huius rei testimonium innumerabilis multitudo fidelium esse potest. Quorum multi promptissimi essent pro fide Christi et suarum animarum salute in fide Christi mori: quos tamen conservando a morte corporali: et ductos in captivitatem per successum temporis suo infectos veneno fidem Christi turpiter negare facit.” Turchicæ Spurcitiæ Suggillatio, fol. i.; cf. fol. vi. (a). ↑
105 Menavino, p. 96. John Harris: Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, vol. ii. p. 819. (London, 1764.) ↑
106 “Dieses muss man den Türken nachsagen, dass sie die Diener und Sclaven, durch deren Fleiss und Bemühung sie sich einen Nutzen schaffen können, sehr wol und oft besser, als die Christian die ihrige, halten … und wann ein Knecht in einer Kunst erfahren ist, gehet ihm nichts anders als die Freyheit ab, ausser welche er alles andere hat, was ein freyer Mensch sich nur wünschen kan.” (G. C. von den Driesch, p. 132.) ↑
107 Sir William Stirling-Maxwell says of these: “The poor wretches who tugged at the oar on board a Turkish ship of war lived a life neither more nor less miserable than the galley-slaves under the sign of the Cross. Hard work, hard fare, and hard knocks were the lot of both. Ashore, a Turkish or Algerine prison was, perhaps, more noisome in its filth and darkness than a prison at Naples or Barcelona; but at sea, if there were degrees of misery, the Christian in Turkish chains probably had the advantage; for in the Sultan’s vessels the oar-gang was often the property of the captain, and the owner’s natural tenderness for his own was sometimes supposed to interfere with the discharge of his duty.” (Vol. i. pp. 102–3.) ↑
111 “Die ersten Jahre sind für solche unglückliche Leute am beschwehrlichsten, absonderlich wenn sie noch jung, weil die Türken selbige entweder mit Schmeicheln, oder, wann dieses nichts verfangen will, mit der Schärfe zu ihren Glauben zu bringen suchen; wann aber dieser Sturm überwunden, wird man finden, dass die Gefangenschaft nirgend erträglicher als bey den Türken seye.” (G. C. von den Driesch, p. 132.) Moreover Georgieviz says that those who persevered in the Christian faith were set free after a certain fixed period. “Si in Christiana fide perseveraverint, statuitur certum tempus serviendi, quo elapso liberi fiunt … Verum illis qui nostram religionem abiurarunt, nec certum tempus est serviendi, ned ullum ius in patriam redeundi, spes libertatis solummodo pendet a domini arbitrio” (p. 87). Similarly Menavino, p. 65. Cantacuzenos gives this period as seven years:—“Grata è la compagnia che essi fanno a gli schiavi loro, percioche Maumetto gli ha fra l’altre cose comandato che egli non si possa tener in servitù uno schiavo più che sette anni, et perciò nessuno o raro è colui che a tal comandamento voglia contrafare” (p. 128). ↑
112 “Fromme Christen, die nach der Türkei oder in andere muhamedanische Länder kamen, hatten Anlass genug zur Trauer über die Häufigkeit des Abfalls ihrer Glaubensgenossen, und besonders die Schriften der Ordensgeistlichen sind voll von solchen Klagen. Bei den Sclaven konnte sich immer noch ein Gefühl des Mitleids dem der Missbilligung beimischen, aber oft genug musste man die bittersten Erfahrungen auch an freien Landsleuten machen. Die christlichen Gesandten waren keinen Tag sicher, ob ihnen nicht Leute von ihrem Gefolge davon liefen, und man that gut daran, den Tag nicht vor dem Abend zu loben.” (Gmelin, p. 22.) Cf. Von den Driesch, p. 161. ↑
120 “The old People dying, the young ones generally turn Mahumetans: so that now (1655) you can hardly meet with two Christian Armenians in all those fair Plains, which their fathers were sent to manure.” Tavernier (1), p. 16. ↑
125 One of themselves, an Albanian Christian, speaking of the enmity existing between the Christians and Muhammadans of Bulgaria, says: “Aber für Albanien liegen die Sachen ganz anders. Die Muselmänner sind Albanesen, wie die Christen; sie sprechen dieselbe Sprache, sie haben dieselben Sitten, sie folgen denselben Gebräuchen, sie haben dieselben Traditionen; sie und die Christen haben sich niemals gehasst, zwischen ihnen herrscht keine Jahrhunderte alte Feindschaft. Der Unterschied der Religion war niemals ein zu einer systematischen Trennung treibendes Motiv; Muselmänner und Christen haben stets, mit wenigen Ausnahmen, auf gleichem Fusse gelebt, sich der gleichen Rechte erfreuend, dieselben Pflichten erfüllend.” (Wassa Effendi: Albanien und die Albanesen, p. 59.) (Berlin, 1879.) ↑
127 Clark, pp. 175–7. The Mirdites, who are very fanatical Roman Catholics (in the diocese of Alessio), will not suffer a Muhammadan to live in their mountains, and no member of their tribe has ever abjured his faith; were any Mirdite to attempt to do so, he would certainly be put to death, unless he succeeded in making good his escape from Albania. (Hecquard: Histoire de la Haute Albanie, p. 224.) ↑
129 Alessandro Comuleo, 1593. Bizzi, 1610. Marco Crisio, 1651. Fra Bonaventura di S. Antonio, 1652. Zmaievich, 1703. ↑
133 It is also complained that the Archbishop’s palace was appropriated by the Muhammadans, but it had been left unoccupied for eight years, as Archbishop Ambrosius (flor. 1579–1598) had found it prudent to go into exile, having attacked Islam “with more fervour than caution, inveighing against Muḥammad and damning his Satanic doctrines.” (Farlati, vol. vii. p. 107.) ↑
134 Bizzi, fol. 9, where he says, “E comunicai quella mattina quasi tutta la Christianità latina.” From a comparison with statistics given by Zmaievich (fol. 227) I would hazard the conjecture that the Latin Christian community at this time amounted to rather over a thousand souls. ↑
136 Veniero, fol. 34. This was also the custom in some villages of Albania as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century; see W. M. Leake: Travels in Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 49. (London, 1835): “In some villages, Mahometans are married to Greek women, the sons are educated as Turks, and the daughters as Christians; and pork and mutton are eaten at the same table.” ↑
139 Shortly after Marco Bizzi’s arrival at Antivari a Muhammadan lady of high rank wished to have her child baptised by the Archbishop himself, who tells us that she complained bitterly to one of the leading Christians of the city that “io non mi fossi degnato di far a lei questo piacere, il qual quotidianamente vien fatto dai miei preti a richiesta di qualsivoglia plebeo” (fol. 10, b). ↑
140 For modern instances of the harmonious relations subsisting between the followers of the two faiths living together in the same village, see Hyacinthe Hecquard: Histoire et description de la Haute Albanie (pp. 153, 162, 200). (Paris, 1858.) ↑
146 Zmaievich, fol. 5. The Venetian real in the eighteenth century was equal to a Turkish piastre. (Businello, p. 94.) ↑
151 Id. fol. 33, b. “Qui deriva il puoco numero de Sacerdoti in quelle parti e la puoca loro intelligenza in quel mestiero; il gran numero de’ Christiani, che invecchiano, et anco morono senza il sacramento della Confermatione et apostatano della fede quasi per tutto.” ↑
152 “Se l’Albania non riceverà qualche maggior agiuto in meno di anni anderà a male quasi tutta quella Christianità per il puoco numero dei Vescovi e dei Sacerdoti di qualche intelligenza.” (Id. fol. 61, a.) ↑
155 “E quei miseri hanno fermata la conscientia in creder di non peccar per simil coniuntioni (i.e. the giving of Christian girls in marriage to Muhammadans) per esser i turchi signori del paese, e che però non si possa, nè devea far altro che obbedirli quando comandano qualsivoglia cosa.” (Bizzi, fol. 38, b.) ↑