Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/337

Rh C N S T A N T I is P L E 307 called Koumbaraji Sokak (street of bombardiers), passes beside the elegant English church (Crimean memorial church) which was consecrated under the name of Christ Church in 1868. The great tower of Galata, like that of the Seraskierat (War Office) on the opposite height in Stamboul, is used as afire-tower. In the times of Genoese occupation it was the main castle or keep of the town ; it was heightened, not founded, by those settlers from Italy. The original tower was built about the end of the 5th cen tury by the emperor Anastasius Dicorus. Since that time it communicated with another huge tower (long ago destroyed), which stood near the site of the present terminus of the Adrianople Railway in Stamboul, the tower of Eugenius. It was joined to this tower in time of war by an iron chain laid across the Golden Horn to keep out enemies ships, while a similar chain, fastening the tower of Eugenius to a fort replaced now by the llaiden s tower (miscalled Leander s), barred the passage of tho Bosphorus. From the tower of Galata there spread out, as spokes from an axle, some three or four lines of wall, which ran down ward till they met on the right the line which guarded the quays, on the left a sweeping line which embraced that ex tension of the town which had crept along the shore as far as the modern Tophaneh. The inner line, which unequally divided the quarter that lies between the bridges, was double, Some portions of this and of the others still exist, with towers and gateways; but of the numerous tablets visible upon them when they were standing, two only remain in their original place. Below the double wall, which gave passage to troops from the great tower to the seaward wall, stands the remarkable mosque called Arab- jamisi (Saracens mosque). Its form and contents serve as a record of the history of Galata. Its minaret, unlike the minarets of Turkish mosques, is square, recalling the Moorish towers of Spain. Remains of Genoese monuments on its floor and in the outer court testify to its Christian use. Originally a Mahometan place of worship, it is not orien tated, nor has it an apsidal termination. It is said to have been first built for the Arab colony that lingered here since the invasions of Constantinople by the Arabs. When Galata, already occupied by the Genoese at the commence ment of the 1 3th century, was, from motives of gratitude or of policy, given up entirely to that colony of daring merchants by Michael Palseologus on his recovery of the city from the Latins, this mosque became their chief church ; but when, nearly two centuries afterwards, the Ottoman Turks became masters of Constantinople, it reverted to its first purpose, and Christian worship gave way to Mahometan. Besides the great tower and some ruins of walls and towers, the massive blocks of building that are now banks and merchants offices, the palace of the podesta, the Lombard church known as St Benedict s, which is at this day a centre of French philanthropic and religious works, are existing memorials of the settlements of those Genoese merchants, the active and successful rivals of the Pisans and Venetians, whose proper quarters lay at the foot of the tower of Eugenius, now within the Seraglio wall and the ancestors of the enterprizing merchants of later times who are known and respected as the Greeks of the island of Scio. The names Pera and Galata have not always been restricted to their present limits. Pera, like Percea, is Greek, designating the region over the water, and was naturally employed as from Constantinople to mark that quarter of the city which, lay on the other side of the Golden Horn. The name was accordingly first given to the lower portion of the town, now called Galata and formerly Sycse (the fig-trees). This quarter of the city was enlarged and adorned by Justinian, but before his time, under Arcadius, it was reckoned ono of the regions Df Constantinople. The ground which it covered seems to have been used still earlier as a cemetery of the Christian citizens, and corresponded thus v;ith the site of the Seraskierat in Stamboul, on the third hill, which, heathen monuments discovered on the spot show to have been the burial-place of the citizens of Byzantium. As all Galata was in former times called Pera, so Pera seems to have been sometimes included in Galata. Galata- Serai, the palace of the Turkish governor of Galata (now a Franco-Turkish lyceum), is situated in the centre of Pera. The name Galata, which has been the subject of much dis cussion, appears to be the corruption of the Italian Calalce (descent), the name whereby that quarter of an Italian seaport town is known which spreads over the sloping shore. Until a few years ago Galata and Pera were separated by a dry moat. This has lately been filled up with streets. Two bridges of boats span the Golden Horn and unito Bridges. Galata to Stamboul. The inner one, constructed of iron, though new, has, in taking the place, adopted the name of a former bridge constructed in the reign of the- Sultan Mahmoud, and is still called the Old Bridge. It stretches from the western end of Galata to the quarter on the Stamboul side w which is called Oun-Capou. The outer bridge is known as that of Karakeui, as it extends from a part of Galata so named, and also as the bridge of the Valideh Sultan, because the opposite end of it rests on the shore below the mosque of the Valideh-Sultan, otherwise Yeni Jami, or the new mosque. A third bridge, con structed during the Crimean war between Hasskeui and Aivan Serai, has disappeared. There is said to have existed in ancient times one bridge that of Justinian. The bridge built by Philip of Macedon seems to have crossed the river at the head of the Horn. The climate of Constantinople is generally healthy, Climate, owing to the position of the city, its natural drainage, and the currents of the Bosphorus, but the temperature is subject to great and sudden changes. It is true of the capital, as of the country at large, that Popula no point is so hard to ascertain as the sum total of the tlon - inhabitants and the relative proportions of its parts. Byzantius in 1851 reckoned the population of the city and its suburbs at about one million, viz., 500,000 Turks, 220,000 or 300,000 Greeks, 50,000 or 120.000 Armenians, 70,000 Jews, 10,000 Franks, and 70,000 miscellaneous. Official statistics return the population of the city and suburbs as not exceeding 700,000 in 1877. The Mahometan public schools are of three classes : Education (1) The primary district schools Mahaleh for boys and girls mixed ; (2) for boys, the provincial schools Rushdiyeh of a higher order ; (3) for young men, the mosque schools Medresseh, a sort of theological seminaries. There are said to be 500 medressehs in Stamboul alone. In the first class of schools are taught the Turkish alphabet and the reading of the Koran in Arabic ; in the second, reading, elements of writing, principles of arithmetic, and Turkish geography and history ; in the third, besides theology, Turkish, Arabic, and sometimes the Persian language. The age of entrance into the first is about five years ; into the second, ten. Most lads, on leaving these secondary schools, at about sixteen years of age, pro ceed no higher. Besides the public schools, which an open to all Mahometan youth without distinction, there ara special Government schools. The five chief establishments are the military, naval, and artillery schools, the school of military engineering, and the medical school. To each of these is annexed a preparatory school Tdadiyelc. A few other special schools are a training-school for teachers in the Eushdiyeh, a school of languages for translators, and a school for managers of woods and forests. The most Important institution for supplying good secondary instruc tion is the metropolitan lyceum of Galata, which has