European Turkey; Its People, Its Provinces, and Its History with an Account of the Origin of the Present War (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854 Excerpt: ... is, it was the arena in which metaphysical and theological questions, trivial and useless for the most part, were discussed; but nothing can be more gross than the listless ignorance, vice, and apathy which now prevail there. All the convents contain libraries of greater or less extent, filled with manuscripts and rare relics of antiquity; but the monks, careless and indifferent, or depraved and vicious, to excess, allow these manuscripts and relics to be destroyed by insects and time. The monks are little. molested by the Turks; few of them understand the Turkish language. Their wealth comes now principally from Russia. Byzantine art is represented amongst them at the present day by the rudest daubs, evidences at once of their listlessness and ignorance. Near the sources of the Vardar, at the foot of Haemus, stands the town of Uskub, the capital of a district of Macedonia of the same name. Uskub is probably a Turkish corruption of the Greek Scopia, its ancient appellation, a term referring to the magnificent view which it commands. In the time of the Low Empire it was called one of the keys of Macedonia. Nothing. can be grander, in the way of scenery, than that which the traveller witnesses in Uskub--nothing can be more squalidly filthy than the habitations of the Jews and Greeks that abound in it. To the north and west rise the mountains of Hzemus and Pindus, forming a beautiful background to the picture. To the south and east stretch the vine-clothed plains of Macedon, rich with various vegetation. In Uskub itself he will find, however, little to interest him save the ruins of former refinement, and the great clock that warns the pious Mussulman of the hours of prayer, and can be heard, it is said, for six miles round in every direction. This latter fac...