Note 91 — Chapter VII · SLAVES.

In modern times the Turks claim the credit of superior humanity towards their slaves who, through marriage with their masters’ sons or daughters, often rise to the highest degree of opulence and distinction. Most of the Pashas and great officers of state have sprung from a servile origin. The same thing may be said of the Sultanas and principal ladies of the empire; for which reason the Circassian princes and nobles have always been ambitious to have one at least of their daughters established in a Turkish harem. Habesci, State of the Ottoman Empire, chap. 31. p. 396, sqq. A correspondent of the Malta Times, writing from Turkey, observes: “Should the slave object to remain with his master, he himself has the power to go to the market and declare he wishes to be sold. The master never opposes this, and it proves such a check upon him that he seldom dares even to scold his slave.” Times, February 28, 1842. All this must be understood, however, with considerable reserve, since no traveller can pass through the Ottoman Empire without discovering numerous examples of the cruelty of masters towards their domestics.