usual range of
Oriental literature.

There are about forty public libraries in Constantinople, but many of
these are within the principal mosques, and therefore not easily
accessible to Europeans. They are all endowed with ample funds for
their maintenance and the salaries of their librarians, who frequently
add considerably to their emoluments by transcribing MSS:--"but it
does not appear that these funds are employed in adding to these
collections; so that in point of numbers they remain nearly as when
first founded." Each library has not only a simple nomenclature, but a
_catalogue raisonnee_ containing a summary of each work; and the
books, most of which are transcribed on vellum or highly glazed paper,
are bound in the manner of a tuck pocket-book, in dark morocco or
calf, with the titles written on the outside of the margin, and are
laid on their sides on the shelves. The floors are covered with mats,
and on one or more sides are low divans for the use of the students,
who leave their slippers at the door; a narrow desk in front of the
divans supports the volumes in use. Neither fire, candle, nor smoking,
is permitted; and the libraries in general are open daily, except on
Friday, and during Ramazan and the two Beirams, from about 9 A.M. to
afternoon prayer; those present at the time of mid-day prayer, quit
their studies and perform their devotions in common.

Many of the most valuable and costly of the illuminated MSS. are in
the two libraries of the seraglio, the larger of which, containing at
present 4400 volumes, is the most extensive collection of books in
Constantinople: but they can scarcely be reckoned among the public
libraries, as admission to them is obtained with difficulty, and only
by special permission, even by Moslems. Besides the MSS. in the great
seraglio library, among the most valuable of which is a magnificent
copy of the Arabic poem of Antar, and another of the Gulistan, the
great moral poem of Saadi, there is a canvass genealogical tree,
containing portraits of all the sovereigns of the house of Osman, from
originals preserved in the sultan's private library. Next in
importance is the library of the mosque of Aya Sofia (St Sophia,)
founded by Mohammed the Conqueror, which is rich in valuable MSS. and
contains a Koran said to have been written by the hand of the Khalif
Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet: another attributed to the same
source, as well as one ascribed to the Khalif Omar, are