ding to the author, and even the imperial
domains, are held under one or other of these wakoof tenures, which
thus represent the great landed interests of the country. Formerly,
the domains belonging to the mosques in each pashalik were let on
annual leases (as the public revenues are still farmed) to _multezim_
or contractors, generally the pashas of the provinces: but the system
of subletting and dilapidation to which this course of short leases
gave rise, was so ruinous to the agricultural population and the
property of the wakoofs, that a thorough reform was introduced in the
reign of Abdoul-Hamid, the father of Mahmood II. The lands were now
let on life tenancies, (_malikania_,) on the same system of beneficial
leases and large fines on renewals which prevails with respect to the
property of collegiate and other corporate bodies in England; which
has greatly improved their condition, as it is no longer the interest
of the lessee to rack the peasantry, or damage the property, for the
sake of present advantage. "More than one monarch has entertained
projects of dispossessing the mosques of these privileges, and of
placing the wakoofya under the exclusive superintendence of
government. Sultan Mahmood II. seriously contemplated carrying this
plan into effect, and probably would have done so, had his life been
spared. The government in this case would have paid the salaries of
all sheikhs, priests, and persons attached to the sacred edifices,
together with all repairs and expenses of their dependent
institutions, and would have converted the surplus to state purposes.
Various plans were suggested to Mahmood's predecessors; but during the
existence of the janissaries, no one dared to interfere with
institutions whence the Oolema, (men of law and religion,) intimately
connected with the janissaries, derived invariable profit."

Returning at length from this long digression to the jewel bezestan,
and passing from the south-eastern, or mercers' gate, "through lines
of shops stored with a variety of ready-made articles required by
ladies," we reach the Silk Bezestan, (Sandal Bezestany,) which, like
the other, has four arched gates named after different trades, and is
surmounted by twenty domes, four in a line. Though occupied solely by
Armenians, and regulated by a committee of six Armenian elders, it is
directed by a Turkish kehaya or president, with his deputy, whose duty
it is to superintend the police and collect the gov