| Transcript |
63 CONSTANTINOPLE AND ITS ENVIRONS ;
letters of gold, a confession of faith from the Koran, and beneath it is the seat of the
judges. On the wall on the south is represented the form of an altar, to which suitors in
any cause turn themselves, and, on a signal given by the crier, address prayers for the success of their suit, as to the Al-Caaba at Mecca. The grand vizir is obliged to administer
justice in this hall four times a week—Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
As the Koran is the repository of the civil as well as the religious code of the empire,
all suits are decided here by its authority. Attached to most mosques, are medresis or
"colleges," where students are instructed in law as well as divinity, by muderis or "professors." When qualified by a certain course of study, they are despatched to the towns
and villages in every part of the empire, where they become the mollas, naibs, and cadis, or
various "judges," appointed to dispense justice, founding all their decrees on the precepts of
the Koran. Of these there are two considered as superiors, and named Cadileskers, one
for the northern portions of the empire, called Roumeli Cadilesker, or " the supreme judge
of Europe;" the other for the southern, called Anadoli Cadilesker, or "the supreme judge
of Asia." A third, who decides in ecclesiastical matters only, is called Istambol Effendi, or
"judge of the capital." These, particularly the two former, are always the assessors of the
grand vizir in the Divan, and form with him the grand tribunal of the empire. From
the earliest period of Oriental usage, the right hand has been deemed the post of honour,
but the thing is reversed in matters connected with the law. The Turks are particularly
tenacious of position as indicating distinction. The Cadilesker Anadoli sits on his left
hand, and the Cadilesker Roumeli on his right, and the same precedence is rigidly
observed among the suitors of the court. The judges, when constituting this tribunal, do
not sit with their legs folded under them, as is the universal practice of all Orientals, but
their legs are suffered to hang down and rest on a footstool, and it is thus the sultan
himself receives the ambassadors of foreign powers. It is a deviation from the ordinary
position, which is supposed to confer seriousness and dignity on any important occasion.
When a Turk goes to law, he first proceeds to an arzuhalgee; this is a kind of attorney,
or licensed scrivener, who holds an office in various parts of the city, and who alone is
permitted to undertake a statement of a case. So tenacious of this privilege is the arzuhalgee, that no officer of state, however competent his ability or high his station, can draw
up a process for himself, but must apply to this scrivener. To him the plaintiff" goes, and
he draws up for him an arzuhal, which is not a detail of lengthened repetitions, but literally a brief, containing a statement of the case in a few words. With this he proceeds
early in the morning to the Divan, on one of the appointed days of session, and he is
ranged with other suitors in two long lines, awaiting for sunrise, when the grand vizir
attends to open the court. On his arrival, he passes up the lane formed by the suitors,
and, having arrived at the Divan, a small table covered with a cloth of gold is laid before
him, and the court opens. The first suitor on the left has the precedence. He presents
his arzuhal to a chaoush or officer in attendance, who hands it to the chaoush bashee, and
by him it is laid before the buyuk teskiergee, or " great receiver of memorials," who stands
on the left hand of the grand vizir. He reads out the plaintiff's case with a loud voice,
and the defendant is called on for a reply. Here is none of the tedious formulas of |
