jih: decline and fall

W8

CH U\LXVIII

Forces of’■lie Turks 3

The troops of Asia and Europe extended onthe right and left from the Propontis to the har-bour: the janizaries in the front were stationedbefore the sultan’s tent; the Ottoman line wascovered by a deep entrenchment; and a subor-dinate army inclosed the suburb of Galata, andwatched the doubtful faith of the Genoese. Theinquisitive Philelphus, who resided in Greece about thirty years before the siege, is confident,that all the Turkish forces, of any name or value,could not exceed the number of sixty thousandhorse and twenty thousand foot; and he upbraidsthe pusillanimity of the nations, who had tamelyyielded to a handful of barbarians. Such in-deed might be the regular establishment of thecapiculiy the troops of the porte, who marchedwith the prince, and were paid from his royaltreasury. But the bashaws, in their respectivegovernments, maintained or levied a provincialmilitia; many lands were held by a militarytenure; many volunteers were attracted by thehope of spoil; and the sound of the holy trum-pet invited a swarm of hungry and fearless fana-tics, who might contribute at least to multiplythe terrors, and in a first attack to blunt theswords, of the Christians. The whole mass ofthe Turkish powers is magnified by Ducas, Chal-cocond > les, and Leonard of Chios , to the amountof three or four hundred thousand men; but

1 The palatine troops are styled Ca}.iculi, the provincials, Seratculi;and most of the names and institutions of the Turkish militia existedbefore the Canon Nameh of Soliman IF, from which, and his own expe«rience, count Blarsigh has composed his military state of the Ottoman empire .