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C 0 N S T A N T l N O P L E century wrought little change in the outward aspect of the city, but throughout that period, during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II., many of the conditions of life in the Turkish capital underwent considerable alteration. This arises from the fact that Sultan Abdul Hamid’s mode of life and method of government were wholly different from those of his predecessors. Constantly preoccupied with apprehension for his personal security, he transferred his abode, shortly after coming to the throne, from the palace of Dolma Baghtche, on the bank of the Golden Horn, where he did not feel safe, to Yildiz Kiosk, a pleasure resort of his predecessors on a hill behind Beshiktash, overlooking Pera, Stamboul, the lower Bosphorus, and the Sea of Marmora. The park is surrounded by a great wall, in some parts 50 feet high, and contains two small lakes, the
one natural and the other artificial. Larly in 1901 the Sultan, in order to extend the park towards Ortakeui, bought a large adjacent estate, consisting of a mansion and extensive grounds, which are now enclosed within the mural fence of Yildiz. Within this carefully guarded enclosure are numerous buildings, which include an observatory, baths, a museum of arms, a porcelain factory, a furniture manufactory, armouries, stabling for 150 horses, and a harness factory, besides a number of chalets and other fanciful edifices. The most conspicuous amongst these latter is the Merassim Kiosk, built specially for the occupation of the German Emperor on his first visit in 1889, and enlarged for his later visit in 1898. Some of the smaller chalets are used as prisons for political prisoners, or as houses of detention for persons undergoing
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inquisitorial treatment. Within the main enclosure, a second wall surrounds the kiosk which the Sultan, with his four principal wives, inhabits, and which he himself designed. About it are grouped smaller kiosks in which the other ladies of the harem reside. The doors of this inner barrier are all locked at sunset, and therein, protected by his bodyguard, the Sultan passes his nights in assured security. In March 1901 the Offices of the Privy Purse, from the windows of which—commanding a view of the road between the palace gateway and the Hamidieh Mosque—approved visitors witnessed the Selamlik procession on Fridays, were demolished by Imperial order, called forth by the Sultan’s ever-increasing fear of assassination. The palace domain is guarded by two batteries of artillery, and by the whole of the 2nd division of the
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First Army Corps, composed of 12 battalions, each 600 strong. These are lodged in spacious barracks built on the outer side of the park wall, with a mosque adjacent thereto for the special use of the troops. The Sultan’s guard consists of (1) the “ Tufenkdjis,” or bodyguard, of whom there are 94, Albanians and Circassians; (2) the “ Silahsors,” drilled soldiers, numbering about 300, Albanians and Bosniaks; (3) the “ Hademes ” {garde de luxe), employed only on State occasions, and comprising the musicians of the Palace, about 500 in number; (4) the “ Tchaush,” of whom there are between 50 and 60, and who are messengers as well as guards; (5) the Bekdjis or watchmen, numbering 200, who keep watch by relays all over the park by day and night. The most important of the material changes since 1880
