Note 212 — Chapter III · THE RULING INSTITUTION: AS MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Reading edition
Hammer (Geschichte, i. 232), by a singular perversion of the truth, asserts that the page system had its origin and primary purpose in the satisfaction of the unnatural lusts of Bayezid I and his successors. Not only does the whole structure and organization of the system disprove this, but the absence of reference to such a purpose in all contemporary writers is sufficient to settle the matter. The vice which takes its name from Sodom was very prevalent among the Ottomans, especially among those in high position (Spandugino, 186; Busbecq, Life and Letters, i. 232; Ricaut, 151, 211; D’Ohsson, iv. 473). The pages were apt to be afflicted by it, and were carefully watched to prevent it, and terribly punished if discovered (Ricaut, 60). Occasionally a sultan became enamored of a page (Ricaut, 61); but Suleiman seems to have been free from this vice (Busbecq, i. 159; Marini Sanuto, Diarii, December 6, 1523).