452
TURKEY.
The private income of the sultan is variously reported. Official -documents, issued by the Minister of Finance, state that the civil list amounts to 240,982 purses, or 1,033,882/.; but this sum is believed to represent only a part of the resources of the sovereign. Other accounts fix the personal expenditure of the sultan at 9,600,000/., equal to more than three-fourths of the -whole revenue of the empire. The private exchequer of the monarch is encum- bered with vast liabilities, notwithstanding frequent attempts at retrenchment. To the reigning family belong a great number of crown domains, the income from which, as well as the customary presents of tributary princes and high state functionaries, contribute to the revenue of the. imperial house.
The following is a list of the thirty-three sovereigns of Turkey, with date of accession, from the foundation of the empire and of the reigning house.
House of Othman .... 1299 Orchan .... 1326 Amurath I. . . .1360 BajazetL, ' The Thunder- bolt* .... 1389 Solyman I. 1402 Mohammed I. . . . 1413 Amurathll. . . . 1421 Mohammed II., Conqueror
of Constantinople . 1451 Bajazetll. . . . 1481 Selim I. . . . 1512 Solyman II., ' The Magni- ficent ' . . . 1520
Selim II 1566
Amurath III. . . . 1574
Mohammed III. . . 1595
Ahmet I. . . . 1603 Mustapha I. . . .1617
Othman. Osman I. Amurath IV.,
pid' Ibrahim . Mohammed IV Solyman III. Ahmet II. Mustapha II. Ahmet III. Mahmoud I. Osman II. Mustapha III. Abdul Hamid Selim III. Mustapha IV. Mahmoud II. Abdul-Medjid Abdul-Aziz
The Intre-
1618
1623 1640 1649 1687 1691 1695 1703 1730 1754 1757 1774 1788 1807 1808 1839 1861
The average reign of the above thirty-three rulers of the Turkish empire, during a period of more than five centuries and a half, amounted to seventeen years.
Constitution and Government,
The fundamental laws of the empire are based on the precepts of the Koran. The will of the sultan is absolute, in so far as it is not in opposition to the accepted truths of the Mahometan religion, as laid down in the sacred book of the Prophet. Next to the Koran, the laws of the 'Multeka,' a code formed of the supposed sayings
