OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

149

But the most striking feature in the life and chap.character of Amurath is the double abdication ^ XVI1 'of the Turkish throne; and, were not his mo- His doubletives debased by an alloy of superstition, we ^''1442"must praise the royal philosopher, 0 who, at the l444 -age of forty, could discern the vanity of humangreatness. Resigning the sceptre to his son, heretired to the pleasant residence of Magnesia;but he retired to the society of saints and her-mits. It was not till the fourth century of theHegira, that the religion of Mahomet had beencorrupted by an institution so adverse to hisgenius; but in the age of the crusades, the va-rious orders of dervishes were multiplied by theexample of the Christian, and even the Latin ,monks. 0 The lord of nations submitted to fast,and pray, and turn round in endless rotationwith the fanatics, who mistook the giddiness ofthe head for the illumination of the spirit. p Buthe was soon awakened from this dream of en-thusiasm, by the Hungarian invasion; and hisobedient son was the foremost to urge the pub-lic danger and wishes of the people. Under the

* Voltaire (Essai sur l’Histoire Generale, c. 29, p 283, 284) admiresIt philosophe Tart: would behave bestowed the same praise on a Chris-tian prince for retiring to a monastery ? In his way, Voltaire was abigot, an intolerant bigot.

0 See the articles Dervische, Fakir, Nasser, Rohhaniut, in d’Herbelol’sBibliothcque Orientale. Yet the subject is superficially treated fromthe Persian and Arabian writers. It is among the Turks that theseorders have principally flourished.

p Rycaut (in the present State of the Ottoman Empire , p. 242-268)affords much information, which he drew from his personal conversa-tion with the heads of the dervishes, most of whom ascribed their ori-gin to the time of Orchan. He does not mention the Zichida of Chal-condyles (1. vii, p. 286), among whom Amurath retired: the Seidi ofthat author are the descendants of Mahomet .