he fashion of wearing Khorassan and old Syrian blades was
revived: and the Stamboul manufactory was gradually neglected."

It is needless to follow Mr White through his dissertations on
handjars, yataghans, and other Oriental varieties of cold steel; but
passing through the booksellers' (Sahhaf) gate of the bezestan, we
find ourselves in the Paternoster Row of Stamboul--a short space
exclusively inhabited by the trade from which the gate derives its
name. The booksellers' guild consists of about forty members, presided
over by a sheikh and a council of elders; and is conducted on
principles as rigidly exclusive as those of some corporations nearer
home, it being almost impossible for any one to purchase the good-will
of a shop, unless connected by blood with some of the fraternity: but
Mr White's account of "the trade," and of the bearded Murrays and
Colburns by whom it is carried on, is far from favourable. Competition
being excluded by this monopoly, the prices demanded are so
exorbitant, "that it is common to say of a close-fisted dealer, 'he is
worse than a sahhaf.' The booksellers' stalls are the meanest in
appearance in all the bazars; and the effendy, who lord it over the
literary treasures, are the least prepossessing, and by no means the
most obliging, of the crafts within this vast emporium." There are
some exceptions, however, to this sweeping censure. Suleiman Effendi,
father of the imperial historiographer, Sheikh-Zadeh Assad Effendi, is
celebrated as a philologist; and Hadji-Effendi, though blind, "appears
as expert in discovering the merits of a MS. or printed work as the
most eagle-eyed of his contemporaries, and is moreover full of
literary and scientific information." Catalogues are unknown, and the
price even of printed books, after they have passed out of the hands
of the editor, is perfectly arbitrary; but the commonest printed books
are double the relative rate in Europe. The value of MSS. of course
depends on their rarity and beauty of transcription; a finely
illuminated Koran cannot be procured for less than 5000 or 6000
piastres, and those written by celebrated caligraphers fetch from
25,000 to even 50,000. Mr White estimates the average number of
volumes on a stall at about 700, or less than 30,000 in the whole
bazar; but among these are frequently found works of great rarity in
the "three languages," (Arabic, Persian, and Turkish.) Of those most
in request, a catalogue is given, comprising the