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PRINTED FOR THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND.
BY A. J. VALPY, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
SOLD BY J. MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET; AND MESSRS. PARBURY, ALLEN, AND CO.,
LEADENHALL STREET; MESSRS. THACKER AND CO., CALCUTTA; MESSRS. TREUTTEL
AND WÜRTZ, PARIS; AND MR. ERNEST FLEISCHER, LEIPSIG. 1831.
GEORGE JOHN EARL SPENCER, K.G. F.R.S. M.R.A.S.
HISTORY OF THE MARITIME WARS OF THE TURKS
HIS LORDSHIP’S GRATEFUL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,
The work of which the following pages contain a translation was some time since recommended to the notice of the Oriental Translation Committee, by the venerable nobleman to whom this performance is inscribed, as being calculated to throw considerable light on the naval history of the Turkish nation.
It is entitled تحفة الكبار في اسفار البحار _A gift to the Great concerning Naval Expeditions_. The author, Haji Khalifeh,[1] is known to all Oriental scholars as a deliberate and impartial historian, and a man of extensive learning. In the present work, however, he has confined himself to a simple narration of events as they occurred, leaving to his readers the task of philosophising on their influence on the political affairs of the empire in general. Of his youthful days nothing is known, except that he was the son of a Sipahi, and that at an early age he was taught to read and write. In his twenty-fifth year he entered as student into the office of the chief historiographer; and while in this capacity, was present in the Persian campaigns of Hamadan and Baghdad. On his return to Constantinople, he attended the lectures of Kazi-Zadeh. Whilst the army was wintering at Aleppo he made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, whence his title of Haji, or Pilgrim. He was also at the siege of Erivan. He now commenced “the greater holy warfare,”—that against ignorance, by indefatigable study. He attended the principal professors of the capital, and after ten years application to the study of languages, the law, logic, and rhetoric, and the interpretation of the Koran and the traditions, he applied himself to the mathematics and geography, to which latter science the Cretan war particularly attracted his attention. At length, beginning to suffer from ill health, he devoted himself to the study of medicine and the mysteries of religion. So ardent was he in the pursuit of knowledge, that he frequently sat up whole nights reading some favourite author; and when he first commenced his literary labours, he expended the whole of his little patrimony in the purchase of books; but some time afterwards a rich relation died, leaving him a legacy, which enabled him to enjoy more of the comforts of life, and to make some additions to his library.