They Form A Disorderly Body Of From Three To Four Thousand
Men, And Daily Increase Their Strength And Number By Recruits From The
Sherifs.
Those who possess the greatest riches, and whose family and
friends are the most numerous, are looked upon as their chiefs, though
they are unable to exercise any kind of discipline.
Of these chiefs
there are at present six principal ones, who have succeeded in sharing
the most lucrative branches of the revenue, and what seems almost
incredible, they have for the last six years preserved harmony amongst
themselves; Hadji Ibrahim Ibn Herbely is at this moment the richest and
most potent of them all.
The legal forms of Government have not been changed, and the Janissaries
outwardly profess to be the dutiful subjects of the Porte. The civil
administration is nominally in the hands of the Mutsellim, who is named
by the Pasha and confirmed by the Porte. the Kadhi presides in the court
of justice, and the Mohassel or chief custom house officer is [a]llowed
to perform his functions in the name of his master, but the Mutsellim
dares not enforce any orders from the Porte nor the Kadhi decide any law
suit of importance, without being previously sure of the consent of some
of the chief Janissaries. The revenue which the grand Signior receives
at this moment from Aleppo is limited to the Miri, or general landtax,
which the Janissaries themselves pay, the Kharatsh or tribute of the
Christians and Jews, and the income of the custom house, which is now
rented at the yearly rate of eighty thousand piastres. Besides these
there are several civil appointments in the town, which are sold every
year at Constantinople to the highest bidder: the Janissaries are in the
possession of the most lucrative of them, and remit regularly to the
Porte the purchase money. The outward decorum which the Janissaries have
never ceased to observe towards the Porte is owing to their fear of
offending public opinion, so as to endanger their own security. The
Porte, on the other hand, has not the means of subduing these rebels,
established as their power now is, without calling forth all her
resources and ordering an army to march against them, from
Constantinople. The expense of such an enterprize would hardly be
counterbalanced by the profits of its success; for the Janissaries,
pushed to extremities, would leave the town and find a secure retreat
for themselves and their treasures in the mountains of the Druses: both
parties therefore endeavour to avoid an open rupture; it is well known
that the chief Janissaries send considerable presents to Constantinople
to appease their master’s anger, and provided the latter draws supplies
for his pressing wants, no matter how or from whence, the insults
offered to his supreme authority are easily overlooked.
The Janissaries chiefly exercise their power with a view to the filling
of their purses. [p.654] Every inhabitant of Aleppo, whether Turk or
Christian, provided he be not himself a Janissary, is obliged to have a
protector among them to whom he applies in case of need, to arrange his
litigations, to enforce payment from his creditors, and to protect him
from the vexations and exactions of other Janissaries. Each protector
receives from his client a sum proportionate to the circumstances of the
client’s affairs. It varies from twenty to two thousand piastres a year,
besides which, whenever the protector terminates an important business
to the client’s wishes, he expects some extraordinary reward. If two
protectors happen to be opposed to each other on account of their
clients, the more powerful of the two sometimes carries the point, or if
they are equal in influence, they endeavour to settle the business by
compromise, in such a way as to give to justice only half its due. Those
Janissaries, who have the greatest number of clients are of course the
richest, and command the greatest influence. But these are not the only
means which the Janissaries employ to extort money. They monopolize the
trade of most of the articles of consumption, (which have risen in
consequence, to nearly double the price which they bore six years ago),
as well as of several of the manufactures of Aleppo; upon others they
levy heavy taxes; in short their power is despotic and oppressive; yet
they have hitherto abstained from making, like the Pashas, avanies upon
individuals by open force, and it is for that reason that the greater
part of the Aleppines do not wish for the return of a Pasha. Though the
Janissaries extort from the public, by direct and indirect means, more
than the Pashas ever did by their avanies, each individual discharges
the burthen imposed upon him more readily, because he is confident that
it insures the remainder of his fortune; in the Pasha’s time, living was
cheaper, and regular taxes not oppressive; but the Pasha would upon the
most frivolous pretexts order a man of property to be thrown into prison
and demand the sacrifice of one fourth of his fortune to grant him his
deliverance. Notwithstanding the immense income of the chief
Janissaries, they live poorly, without indulging themselves in the usual
luxuries of Turks-women and horses. Their gains are hoarded in gold
coin, and it is easy to calculate, such is the publicity with which all
sort of business is conducted, that the yearly income of several of them
cannot amount to less than thirty or forty thousand pounds sterling.
It is necessary to have lived for some time among the Turks, and to have
experienced the mildness and peacefulness of their character, and the
sobriety and regularity of their habits, to conceive it possible that
the inhabitants of a town like Aleppo, should continue to live for years
without any legal master, or administration of justice, protected only
by a miserable guard of police, and yet that the town should be a safe
and quiet residence. No disorders, or nightly tumults occur; and
instances of murder and robbery are extremely rare.
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