We must now turn to the state of the feodal system in the Othoman dominions, which will demonstrate more exactly that which obtained under the Nogai Tatars. The Osmanlee Turks, from the earliest period of their history as a nation, appear to have adopted, as the basis of their military organization, an institution so similar to the feodal system of Europe as to afford the presumption of a common origin. It was not, however, until the reign of Murad I. (A.D. 1359-89), third Osmanlee sultan after Osman the founder of the empire, that the feodal system became fully developed, organized, and established in its civilized form, which endured until the suppression of feods by Mahmoud II., and the substitution of the mercenary military system of Europe. According to the law of Islam, all vanquished enemies are subject to the forfeiture of life, and may therefore be held as slaves, and their possessions held at the will of the conqueror. Thus, all the divisions of the empire were parcelled out in the spirit of conquest, the principle of the Gothic feodal system was adopted, and all lands were held in knight's service, performable for a limited period in the year. The feodatories were the tenants of Ziamets or Timars, and by their tenure must obey the summons of their provincial government to perform their military service at the appointed time and place, regulated as to numbers by the terms of their respective tenures. The period of service, as it was limited in the feodal armies of Europe, extended usually over six months in each year, at the expiry of which the judge of the camp, or judge-advocate, could not refuse his certificate of service, or restrain the departure of the vassal. The revenue of a feodal estate (a) was called Málee Mukateléh, prælii præmium, and the estate itself Kilidg, or sword. The greater feods were called Ziamet, and were those the annual revenue of which exceeded twenty thousand aspers, nor did its origin change its nature; it might be original and perfect, and was then termed

(a) Des osmanischen Reichs Staats verfassung, and Staats verwaltung Jo. Hammer, 1815, Wien. p. 274, Th. 2, subs. Arab. Zaim plural, Zaimā, Ziamet, plural. Timar, subs. Turk., a grant or military grant, or benefice; but the word is probably, in fact, a conception of the Greek Tápio from Tin, honor.

Idshmalee Ziamet, or composite Ziamet, where the original feod amounted only to fifteen thousand aspers, and had been raised to twenty thousand by the fusion with it of a hessa, or portion of five thousand aspers more. When it was termed Hissalee Ziamet, the difference was merely nominal.

The feods under this sum were termed Timars, and were of two sorts, the Teskerelee timar, or those held on a certificate; and Teskeresiz timar, those held without it. For each superior lord could grant smaller timar to a considerable value, and issue on his own authority a diploma to that effect to the vassal; he could not, however, confer greater ones, in which case he proposed the erection of an estate into a feodality, and issued his provisional order to the vassal, which required confirmation in Constantinople. The amount to which the Beghlerbegh or begh of beghs could grant, varied in different provinces; thus, in Rumelia the limit was under six thousand aspers, and in other provinces more or less.

A timariot, or possessor of a timar, usually received his feof from the sovereign as a reward for military service, and on condition of furnishing in time of war a horseman completely equipped for every three thousand aspers of annual revenue: he was moreover bound to appear in person in the field.

If a vassal possessed a great feof in one district or Sanjack, and a small one in another, the latter was termed An-ziamet or supplemental feof. Mofassal was the feodal register in connection with the Rusnam edgee, or small day-book in which the berats or diplomas were registered. According to the ordinances of Sultan Murad both these classes of feofs were hereditary, as we have seen became the case with European feofs. (a)

Of the great feodatories the most remarkable, both on account of their descent, great power, and vast possessions, were the Dere beghs, or lords of the valley, of whom there flourished several families in various parts of Asia Minor. These chiefs were descendants of the Seljuk princes, and of the governors of provinces under the Seljuk sultans of Koniah or Iconium, who, on the extinction of that monarchy by the death of Abd-ed-deen (a) Colquhoun, "Summary of Roman Civil Law," section 125, p. 134.

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II., last of that dynasty, slain by the Mongols A.D. 1307, divided among themselves such provinces of the old kingdom as were not already in the possession of the Osmanlee Turks, who were at that time becoming rapidly powerful, and to whom these chiefs in course of time were forced to succumb, and submit to the annexation of their lands to the Othoman empire. The descendants of these princes having thus become mediatized sunk into the position of feodal chiefs, and under the name of Dere beghs ruled a few secluded districts in the less accessible valleys of Asia Minor. Their titles were hereditary, and their possessions, though small compared with the extent of the provinces within which they were situated, were so well managed, and so carefully governed, that their power and influence often enabled them to set the governors, pashas, nay, even the Sultan himself at defiance.

Sultan Mahmoud at length determined to break the power of these chiefs (a), and partly by force, partly by treachery, the pashas succeeded in obtaining possession of their strongholds and families, and the few who survived this persecution were finally brought to Constantinople, where they live as private gentlemen upon such incomes as it pleased the Sultan's government to assign to them. The most renowned of these families are those of Kara-Osman, Oglu, and Chapwan Oglu, who long kept the Porte at bay, and who were finally only overcome by treachery. Their names will, however, long survive in those provinces of Anadoli and Karamania which they governed with so much vigour and success.

Until the last thirty years the entire cavalry of the Othoman army was composed of Sepahis (Sepoys) furnished by this system, which, now that the Othoman government, in imitation of European nations, has formed a regular mercenary army, is rapidly falling into decay. On the decline of the empire, many timars and other military tenures were usurped by the sovereign, and the whole property became subject to his will and caprice, as though it were of the nature of daily pay. What other sultans had begun, Mahmoud then accomplished,

(a) See an interesting description of the last of these feodatories destroyed by Ingeh Mohammed Pasha. Layard's "Nineveh,” v. 1.

and those who remained, having been forced to surrender their vast possessions both in Europe and Asia, which became ager publicus, the only indemnification for which were pensions or lands in other places, bearing however but a small proportion to those of which they had been deprived. Notwithstanding these sweeping measures, some of the more inconsiderable have escaped; and the author, twenty years ago, was accompanied in Syria by an escort consisting of these Sepahis, but whose conduct was calculated to give him no very exalted opinion either of their military prowess or even of their common honesty.

In Cyprus also he found the feodal system still in existence, where it had escaped the sweeping measures of Mahmoud, probably because, the Knights of St. John having long resided in Cyprus after their expulsion from Syria, the system had obtained greater consistency there. The few which still exist in Asia are held by rich Turks, who supply deputies for military service, to which no objection is made, or to their passing in inheritance as heretofore.

It is not necessary to trace the gradual phasis through which the feodal system passed in England and in the sister kingdoms; that subject forms the first basis of legal education, and is known to every lawyer-indeed to every wellinformed gentleman. It has been treated and summed up in a masterly manner by the most comprehensive of legal commentators. (a)

We find it introduced under the Conqueror, and assented to by the imported foreign nobility, with all the leprosies of the medieval system; but the introduction of this plant of foreign growth proving too abrupt, we find it consequently checked under John; for the Norman dynasty, which had gradually grown into importance under this system, viewed it with different eyes from that community of mixed race to whom it was in a great measure new, demonstrating the truth of that principle, as true in policy as in physics, that an exotic suddenly transferred to a new soil will never thrive.

The villeins obtained, by the help of fictions and the tendency of the law to favor liberty, their enfranchisement first (a) Blackstone, B. II., ch. iv.

from the laity, an example which the ecclesiastical establishments followed later with sufficiently bad grace.

The fate of the feodal system has been various in all those countries formerly subject to its laws; it has nevertheless been constant in the universality of its decline. In France, it received its deathblow in that revolution which changed a dynasty. In Germany it endured about fifty years longer, and was only abolished after 1848.

In Italy its stronghold was in Naples and Venice, but here, too, it did not escape the influence of the first French revolution.

In the Othoman dominions Sultan Mahmoud abolished it about 1827, cotemporaneously with the massacre of the Jenishaari.

In England it has longest endured, and more slowly declined than elsewhere, and from this we may learn a useful lesson. Great Britain, adverse to sudden changes that shake the foundation of a state, has gradually modified this like every other British institution and moulded it to the progress of civilization; nay, so imperceptibly has the change taken place, partly by customs falling into desuetude, and partly by the decisions of the courts of law, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to point out the epoch at which the successive changes occurred, and when we find a positive law abrogating a certain usance, we may rest assured that it is but the confirmation of a fact of no recent date; still the principle of all lands being held in fee of the crown remains, a mere fiction it is true, but one on which a structure has been erected, maxims founded, and whence logical deductions have been drawn, to abolish which would answer no end, and whose existence imposes no hardship on the community. Fictions for the sake of equity have been the great means of improvement, and instruments of wholesome progress. Less abrupt than direct legislative enactments, they have served the purposes of civilization, and tended to adapt antiquated institutions to an advanced state of society.

The legislature has wisely given to the possessors of copyhold tenures the right of enfranchisement, under a system at